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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

"B'ftfas 

Cnap. ^Copyright No. 

Shelf_,_S-te-3 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 





JOSEPH H. SMITH. 



FROM GLORY TO GLORY; 



on, 



Degrees in, Spiritual Life 



BY 



JOSEPH H. SMITH 






Published by 

CELRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Limited, 

921 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. 






»4 



Copyrighted, 1898, 
By Christian Standard Co., Ltd. 



2n- 




TV iES RECEIVED. 

W ft t 



DEDICATION 



To her who first taught me that : "Man's chief end is to 
glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." 



MY MOTHER 

ELIZA SMITH, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED. 

By the Author, 

JOSEPH H. SMITH 

June 4th, 1898. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Preface 1 1 

Part I The Glory. 

CHAPTER I. — Glory. His. Ours. 
Honor. Delight. We to the Praise of 
His Glory. Philosophy of "Man's Chief 
End" 15 

CHAPTER II. — Glory Concealed. 
"The Veil." Moses' Veil Symbolic. 
Blindness of Nature. Eclipse of Reason. 
Legalism. Jew, Christian, Marks of. 
Still in Sinai's Shadows 19 

CHAPTER III.— Glory Revealed. "An 
Open Fare." What this Means. What it 
is to Turn to the Lord. From Self to 
Christ. Refined and Religious Self 
Hardest to Sacrifice 29 

CHAPTER IV.— Glory Beheld. "Be- 
holding as in a Glass." The Glass. 
Mistaking the Frame for the Glass. 
Analyzing the Glass, Instead of Behold- 
ing in the Mirror. The Beholding. 
What is a Perfect Faith?. 27 

CHAPTER V.— The Glory of the 
Lord. It is in Himself. His Nature. 
His Outgiving. His Righteousness. 
His Cross. His Resurrection 47 

7 



Contents. 

PAGE. 

Part II — The Change. 

CHAPTER I. — Our Transmutation. 
"Into the Same Image:' Most Wonder- 
ful of All Truths. Change of Nature 
Needed. Depravity. Education vs. 
Transformation. Divestments and In- 
vestments. Unfathomed Depths. The 
Power of Change not in Us. Passive 
Subjects of a Transforming Power. 
Not Imitation but Reproduction of 
Christ 63 

CHAPTER II. — The Process of 
Change. "From Glory to Glory." By 
Degrees. Errors Concerning Growth. 
Distinct and Definite Stages. New 
Testament Recognizes Classes of Chris- 
tians. Three Dangers: (1) From Ma- 
terialism; (2) From Emphasis of Con- 
version; (3) From Church Laxity. Six 
Things to be Remembered 71 

CHAPTER III.— Into the Glory of 
Life. Difference Between Translation 
into Glory and Promotion in Glory. 
Justification. Regeneration. Abundant 
Life. Crown of Life. Christ's Resur- 
rection the Type of a Complete Spirit- 
ual Life 78 

CHAPTER IV.— Into the Glory of 
Righteousness. Not Our Own. Not 
Only His. His Made Ours. In Act 

8 



Contents. 

PAGE. 

and in Fact. Excessive Righteousness. 
Two Prepositions in Romans. Man a 
Convict and a Leper Both. Pardon. 
Purity. Power. Wedding Garment. 
Extent and Endurance of Righteous- 
ness 85 

CHAPTER V.— Into the Glory of 
Sacrifice. Marks of Christ. Perfect 
to be as the Master. Analogies of 
Vicarious Sacrifice in Nature. The 
Glory of Saving Men. The Cross Prac- 
tical. A Stumbling-block Like the 
Cross Doctrinal. Christianity Shorn 
of Strength by Shirking and Shrinking 
the Cross. Not the Common View of 
Cross Bearing. Providential Crosses. 
Voluntary Crucifixions 9$ 

CHAPTER VI.— Into the Glory of 
Sacrifice (continued). Crosses for 
Sake of Gospel. Persecutions not 
Ceased. The Dying of Jesus in Our 
Bodies. Service. Vicariousness of Pure 
Christian Sacrifice. Impotency of a 
Crossless Life 1 ic 

CHAPTER VII.— In the Glory of 
Growth. Conversion and Sanctifica- 
tion Establish the Precedent and Illus- 
trate the Law of Spiritual Progress. 
Complete Sanctification Necessary to 
Constant Growth. Apprehending Our 
Glorious Calling. Growth in Life, in 

Holiness, in Sacrifice 117 

9 



Contents. 

PAGE. 

Part III By the Spirit of the Lord. 

CHAPTER I. — Things of the Spirit. 
The Spirit's Strivings. Illumination. 
Birth. Witness 129 

CHAPTER II. — Things of the Spirit 
(continued). The Sanctification of the 
Spirit, Process and Power of 137 

CHAPTER III. — Things of the Spirit 
(concluded). Fulness of the Spirit. 
Help of the Spirit. Guidance of the 
Spirit 143 

CHAPTER IV. — Relation of the 
Means of Grace to the Things of 
the Spirit. Dangers Concerning. 
Importance of Preference and Selection 
of Means of Grace. Supplemental or 
Irregular Means of Grace 152 

Part IV The Glorious Appearing. 

CHAPTER I.— Present Glory a Profile. 
His Presence and Manifestation. The 
Glory of Saints vs. the Shame of Sin- 
ners. No Hope of Either Justification 
or Sanctification at His Coming. A 
Manifestation of His Kingdom, of His 
Righteousness, of Ourselves. Hope 
of Redemption, of Resurrection, of Re- 
union 165 



10 



PREFACE. 



The intense activities and the incon- 
veniences of an evangelist's toil and 
travel furnish greater inspirations than 
facilities for book-writing. But from the 
times of the apostles it has evidently 
been the mind of the Spirit that the pen 
should supplement and aid the tongue in 
the ministry of the gospel. In writing 
this book I have been prompted by the 
same motives which impel me in the 
preaching of the gospel. And I have 
looked to the same sources for help. The 
Spirit of God, the Yvord of God, and the 
people of God have been steadily before 
me from beginning to end. I hope these 
pages may be blessed in their perusal as 
they have been in their preparation. 

Please accept, then, this little book, 
"in His Name." It comes without much 
apology, though not without much de- 
fect. It has a mission, I have no doubt, 
and I trust it may fulfil it. Every page 
was written in the atmosphere of prayer; 
and every copy, I humbly trust, will go 
out as a benediction to some soul. May 
God grant it — to His glory! 



11 



PART I. 



13 



CHAPTER I. 
(SMori)— IntrrjimrionK 

Much revolves around this great round 
word, "glory." We read of the glory 
of the celestial, and of the glory of the 
terrestrial; and we are reminded that 
there is both a heavenly and an earthly 
hemisphere of glory. We have a desire 
to explore the one, and to peep at the 
other. We read, again, of the glory of 
man, which, as the flower of the field, 
passeth away; and we yearn for the glory 
of God, which abideth forever. It dawns 
upon us, in reading the gospel of grace 
and glory, that somehow, somewhere, 
the glory of God and the true glory of 
man converge into one. That they are 
some way identical. At first thought it 
seems fanciful, presumptuous, incredible, 
impossible. Not only because of the 
vast gulf between infinity and finiteness, 
but more because, also, of the vast 
distance between divine holiness and 
human depravity. Yet, fascinated by the 
thought, we linger, we look, we inquire, 

15 



From Glory To Glory. 

we pray. Yes, we even come now to 
believe that God, who has been sharing 
everything else with us, is disposed to 
share His glory, too. It is of this we 
want to learn in this little book. 

Sorrow must flee at the joy of His 
presence. Shame must disappear before 
the honor of His name. Sin must recede 
before the glory of His righteousness. 
Glory is the displacement of death and 
darkness. Beasts might glory in brute 
force. Grass might glory in gay flowers. 
Birds might glory in gaudy plumage. 
Could there be sentient creatures with- 
out moral nature they might glory in 
intellect alone. But man — God's minia- 
ture counterpart — cannot glory but in 
righteousness, in holiness, in the divine 
image, in the divine environments; for 
God is man's element. "Therefore, he 
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!" 

And as man's glory is in God, so 
God's glory is in man. No other creat- 
ure represents so much of His wisdom. 
None but human nature is capable of 
so much of himself. Unless God be 
glorified in man, He will have no glory 
at all on earth. Hence, He speaks of our 
being "to the praise of His glory." 
Marvelous! But true. 

"The chief end of man," and how to 
16 



The Glory. 

attain it, is the task we have undertaken. 
Man's highest honor, and his deepest de- 
lights (for these two are glory) is the 
subject of our meditation. And can he 
reach it? How? 

We think we have an answer. Not 
an answ r er of our own, save only as we 
seek to emphasize and, in a measure, ex- 
plain it. It is this: 

"We all, with open face, beholding as 
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of 
the Lord" (II Cor. hi: 18). This text 
shall serve as the ground-work of this 
volume. For we want to speak as of 
the oracles of God, and not of our own 
understanding. 

Our purpose is to present "the glory 
of the Lord," as the standard and as the 
source of the glory of man. 

Our persuasion is that man may be- 
hold the one and fulfil the other, even 
here below. 

Our presumption is that even amongst 
Christian people there may be formida- 
ble obstructions to the pure light of the 
Gospel, and that the removal of all hin- 
drances to the purity, power and prog- 
ress of believers is the chief obligation 
of the Christian ministry. 

17 



From Glory To Glory, 

Our plan is, (i) To analyze this won- 
drous text, which gives the philosophy 
of man's chief end; (2) to bring out the 
leading steps or stages of a glorious life. 

Our prayer is that glory may fill every 
chapter, page and paragraph; that every 
soul that reads may be changed into the 
same glory, and that this simple volume 
may be "to the praise of His glory." 



18 



CHAPTER II. 
©lorn (ffontcalib. 

(The Veil Upon the Heart.) 

It is not by mere accident that men fail 
to behold the glory of the Lord. Neither 
is it by defect of natural capability, nor 
by deprivation of advantages simply. 
There are dispensational and judicial 
concealings of the divine glory. After 
giving us the symbolic significance of 
the veil over Moses' face, Paul plainly 
asserts, that "even unto this day, when 
Moses is read, this veil is upon their 
heart." We wish then to notice: 

The blindness of the natural heart; 

The eclipse of human reason, and 

The veil of legalism. 

By either of these the revelation of 
God's glory may be shut out from a 
man's soul, notwithstanding the efful- 
gence of His shining. And as well ex- 
pect a rose to advance, from step to step, 
to its queenly glory amongst the flowers 
of the field, without any sunshine to lift 

19 



From Glory To Glory. 

it, as to look for a man to rise to his 
glory amongst the creatures without the 
revelation of the Lord's glory to his soul. 
No wonder the masses of men are glory- 
ing in vanity, and some even glorying in 
their shame, when so few have ever be- 
held the glory of the Lord; for 



"The natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God . . . neither 
can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned." Would we know 
why this man cannot see? There are 
various causes and kinds of blindness; 
and skilful is that oculist who, with his 
ophthalmoscope, can properly diagnose 
this patient's condition, and tell why it is 
that, notwithstanding the splendor of 
noonday sunlight, the poor man abides 
in darkness. More skilful yet and more 
powerful the instrument of the great 
apostle when turning his X-rays upon 
not only the psychology but the moral 
nature of an unregenerate man, he gives 
us the photograph of his mind, which we 
find in Ephesians iv: 17-19. Analyzing 
which we find the following effectual bar- 
riers to light, not in circumstances, but in 
the mind itself: "vanity," "darkness," 

20 



The Glory. 

"ignorance," "blindness of heart," and 
"absence of feeling" or true moral sense. 
No wonder he could not see. No won- 
der we seemed to have come into quite 
a new world when this darkness was 
past, and the true light shone upon us. 
For this man, w T hom Paul pictured, is 
but a representative of the race; as it is 
written: "The whole world lieth in dark- 
ness." And it is no wonder that conver- 
sion is termed a "deliverance from the 
kingdom of darkness," and that the effect 
of the Gospel is proclaimed that "the 
people which sat in darkness have seen 
a great light." 

But we must remember that another 
source of darkness is the eclipse of 
human reason. "The world, by wisdom, 
knew not God." "Thou hast hidden 
these things from the wise and prudent." 
A judicial darkness conceals the knowl- 
edge of the glory of God from the 
worldly wise. The drift of much modern 
learning is away from God. "The wis- 
dom of this world is foolishness with 
God." Not only is there a wisdom that 
is earthly, sensual, devilish; but there is 
much knowledge which graduates men 
into dense ignorance of God. Pride of 
human reason puffs men up into a 
boasted independence of God. The 

21 



From Glory To Glory. 

Christless learned, and those who want 
a godless Christ, stand or stoop with 
their backs toward the sun of righteous- 
ness, and see nothing save in their own 
shadow. The Nature explored by the 
scientist and philosopher is full of God 
on every hand, and yet, when he glorified 
Him not as a God, though "professing to 
be wise, he became a fool." That learn- 
ing of our own times, which promises 
an ideal man, while professing a gospel 
without a cross, and a Christ without in- 
finite merits and divine power, is learn- 
ing under the shadow of a judicial night 
which shut out the knowledge of the 
glory of the Lord. Christians are not 
so invulnerable against the sophistries of 
an insinuating Unitarianism, or an arro- 
gant materialism, but that they need the 
apostolic admonition: "Beware lest any 
man spoil you through philosophy and 
vain deceits, after the tradition of men, 
after the rudiments of the world, and not 
after Christ; for in Him dwell eth all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colos- 
sians ii: 8, 9). 

But there is, thirdly, the veil of legal- 
ism. "Till this day, when Moses is read, 
the veil is upon their heart" (II Cor. iii: 
15). The first lesson Paul has taught us 
about the symbolic veil over Moses' face 

22 



The Glory. 

is that a partial blindness, of a dispensa- 
tional character, characterized Judaism. 
That is to say, the revelation of God's 
glory by the law was partial and not in- 
tended to be permanent, on account of 
the more glorious revelation which was 
to supersede it. And he teaches us, sec- 
ondly, that, though men may live under 
the privileges of this more glorious dis- 
pensation, the veil of Moses will remain 
upon their hearts as long as their seeking 
or service of God is by the works of the 
law. How jealously and how vigilantly 
did Paul, in his times, strive to protect 
young Christians from the Judaizing 
teachers of those days! And will it sur- 
prise the reader to be told that these 
Judaizing tendencies are by no means ex- 
tinct from the Church life of this day? It 
is manifest in some place in the obtrusion 
of ceremonialism, the presence of sacra- 
mentarism (or dependence upon the 
sacraments for salvation) and in the sub- 
stitution of ritualism for the simple wor- 
ship of Christianity. And this to the 
subordination of preaching, as well as to 
the grieving and quenching of the Spirit, 
without whom we cannot worship God 
in spirit and in truth. 

Again, it crops out, in a Pharisaic ex- 
actness as to outward righteousness, par- 

23 



From Glory To Glory. 

ticularly with respect to those lighter 
matters, wherein the grace of God allows 
some elasticity for accommodation to 
possible exigency. But this Jewish 
rigidity is specially manifest in a hasty 
and severe condemnation of others with- 
out tolerance or excuse, and in self-con- 
gratulation for a superiority over other 
men in such details. 

Another exhibition of modern legalism 
takes the form of an undue exaltation of 
the means of grace. Now, that it is far 
from our purpose to disparage the means 
of grace, or to weaken their value and 
importance, will certainly be seen in a 
later chapter; but that some mistake the 
means of grace for grace itself, and that 
some fail, despite their adherence to these 
means, to reach the chief and only effect- 
ual means of obtaining grace which is 
faith, must be evident to all who give it 
attention. And this is nothing more 
than legalism in a modern form. 

To many now, as to the Galatians 
in Paul's time, these words need to 
be addressed: "Are ye so foolish, hav- 
ing begun in the Spirit, are ye made 
perfect by the flesh?" For it is most 
extensively with reference to the higher 
Christian attainments that this de- 
pendence upon works prevails. Though 

24 



The Glory. 

men have been truly converted, and have 
run well for a season, and though all 
converted men recognize that there is a 
perfection beyond, a fulness held out to 
them, an entire conformity to the will 
and mind of God; yet, strange to say, by 
a force of habit, and of influence as well, 
they so often settle down to 'expect this 
state by the works of the law, and not by 
the hearing of faith. There is another 
strange thing before our eyes, and that is 
the preference which some such Chris- 
tians manifest for the Old Testament, 
and how little of the real water of life 
they seem to find in the New. Moses 
and the prophets gain ascendancy with 
them over Jesus and the apostles. Like 
Peter on the mount they would at least 
accord to each of these an equal taber- 
nacle with their Lord. They have not 
yet come to where they "see no more 
any man save Jesus only." This fond- 
ness for the Old Testament shows itself, 
too, in the names of deity which thev 
adopt, as "Almighty," "Jehovah," "Ruler 
of all the World," "Judge," etc., rather 
than the more 'endearing "Father," 
"Friend" and "Brother" of love's vocab- 
ulary in the Gospel. Indeed, such "fa- 
miliarity" with God comes to be repul- 
sive to them. They are under the shad- 

25 



From Glory To Glory. 

ows of Sinai. They hear the thunder- 
ings and see the lightnings. 

This Jew in the Christian Church 
bears other identification marks. In 
proportion to his intensity on these lines, 
he, himself, becomes austere, rigorous 
and repulsive in his cast of religion. 
'Twas he that gave Christianity a bad 
name for hardness and severity in the 
receding generation. His countenance 
and the tone of his voice, if they did not 
exactly repeat the mutterings and the 
clouds of the mount, served to recall the 
sadness and the suffering of the wilder- 
ness. He is conscience-lashed, and the 
broken tables of the law are ever at his 
feet. His is not a glad religion, neither 
is it a victorious salvation. Instead of 
the triumphant note of a conquering 
faith, his dejecting doubts steal the 
language of hope to piece out its vocabu- 
lary, and talks of "things to come in 
God's own good time," which will never 
come at all, unless they reach the heart 
by a present faith. 

Fatalism is instinctive to this state of 
mind, and elements of superstition, to- 
gether with torturous twists of Bible 
doctrine concerning Providence, elec- 
tion, etc., are apt to pass for piety and 
be accepted as orthodoxy. Thus the 

26 



The Glory. 

Word of God is made void by his tradi- 
tions. 

And not only the Pharisee, but the 
Sadducee, likewise, is found in our Chris- 
tian communion. Maybe, indeed, this 
sect predominates over the other class of 
Jews in the Church just now. They are 
skeptical concerning the resurrection 
and angels and spiritual things. The 
supernatural in personal experience, as 
w r ell as in the Book of Revelation, is 
eliminated by their materialism and ra- 
tionalism. They have no place for the 
lowly Nazarene. 

Now, what we wish to impress is that 
when Judaism overlaps on Christianity, 
the same veil is over the heart as was 
over the dispensation of Moses. Legal- 
ism and this Jewish type of Christianity 
disqualify for either the perfect revela- 
tion of the glory of the Lord or the per- 
fect reflection of that glory. The stand- 
ard of some churches and the state of 
many Christians make the fulfilment of 
man's chief end impossible; for until this 
day that veil is over the face when Moses 
is read — or when men look to the law 
for salvation. Is there any hope of a 
more evangelical type of piety for these? 
None! None whatever! Unless they 
"turn to the Lord." "When it shall turn 

27 



From Glory To Glory. 

to the Lord it shall be saved." "Strange 
to talk to men, who seem so godly, about 
'turning to the Lord.' " Yes, this was 
the stumbling-block in the way of the 
Jews then. So it is now. Especially as 
the religion of these Church Jews can 
make so much better an outward show- 
ing than that of many who "make a 
higher profession." But, nevertheless, a 
complete turning from self in even these 
most refined and religious forms is pre- 
requisite to a beholding of the glory of 
the Lord. 



28 



CHAPTER III. 
©lorg Unwxkb; 

or, 
"An Open Face" 

Only casual attention is needed to tell 
us the meaning of "an open face." The 
margin says it should be "an unveiled 
face." So does the connection in which 
we find the phrase. It stands in con- 
trast with Paul's symbolic interpretation 
of Moses' veil. This he calls "blindness 
of mind," and "a veil upon the heart." 
He has explained it as the dispensational 
darkness of legalism. He has shown us 
that it remains still upon the heart of 
those who seek salvation by the law. He 
tells us there is one way of having it 
taken away. That is by turning to the 
Lord. Some have evidently gotten rid 
of it and are now in the clear light where 
they see the glory of the Lord. These 
are the "We," the "We all" of this text. 
Who are they? How came they thus? 

29 



From Glory To Glory. 

Am I one of their number? Or may I 
be? Let us see: 

I. What it is to have an open or un- 
veiled face. 

II. What it is to turn to the Lord. 
And it will serve us a good purpose, 

both now and later, when we come to 
consider "the glory of God in the face of 
Christ Jesus, " to keep in mind that Paul 
locates the face referred to in the "mind." 
He has carried the analogy of Moses' 
veil inward from his face to their hearts. 
So he says: "their minds were blinded/' 
"the veil is upon their hearts/' And "the 
children of Israel could not look to the 
end." Hence, by the simplest possible 
reasoning, we can see that "the open 
face" is a heart without clouds or shad- 
ows, or a veil of a dispensational, judicial 
or carnal character. It is a mind whose 
"blindness" has been healed. It is a 
state of soul qualification to "look stead- 
fastly unto the end." Mental and moral 
healing may sum it up in a word. It is 
not, mark you, the perfect knowledge of 
God; but it is the perfect qualification 
for knowing God. It is neither the ob- 
ject nor the telescope, but the eyesight 
capacitated for using the telescope and 
beholding the object. Thus, in the text, 
the "open face" is distinct from the 

30 



The Glory. 

"glory of the Lord," from the trans- 
formation "into the same image," from 
"the glass" and from the "beholding." 
But it is that fitness of mind and heart to 
behold, which stands in contrast with the 
darkness of Nature's night and with the 
shadows of preceding dispensations. For 
three kinds of darkness must be recog- 
nized by the seeker after spiritual light. 
The darkness in which the whole world 
lieth, individual darkness of a penal 
character for personal sins, and dispensa- 
tional darkness, in w r hich God withheld 
the full and final revelation of His glory 
until this Gospel day. This darkness 
partakes both of the nature of the with- 
holding or withdrawal of light and of de- 
fect or deprivation of vision. It dims all 
vision, but pertains chiefly to things 
spiritual, eternal and divine. It is espe- 
cially dense with reference to the Gospel 
and its grand central object, and results 
practically in a failure and forfeiture of 
the glory of man's being. 

How blessed, then, the taking away of 
this veil ! Now we have the light of life ! 
Now we are able to declare, Jesus is the 
Light, the Way! Now we see light in 
His light! Now we behold wondrous 
things out of His law! Now He mani- 
fests Himself unto us as He does not unto 

31 



From Glory To Glory. 

the world! Now things which are hidden 
from the wise and prudent He has re- 
vealed unto us babes! The darkness is 
now passed, and the true light shineth! 
Glory ! 

Does this sound like a vain boast? 
Does it discriminate between us and 
others? Well, Christ does that when He 
says: "Unto you it is given to know the 
mysteries of the kingdom, but to others it 
is not given." And He declared of some 
that they "should not taste of death until 
they had seen the kingdom of God come 
with power." Hence, we are justified in 
speaking thus of a vision of God and of 
glory which antedates death. The apos- 
tles, too, not only teach and pray that be- 
lievers may have "the spirit of revela- 
tion," and "be filled with the knowledge 
of His will," but they testify of some that 
they are no longer of the night nor of 
darkness, but are "children of the light 
and of the day." An anointing, they say, 
has been given them which abides, and 
whereby they discern all things. Truly, 
this is glorious. And, moreover, to-day 
there are those to be found, both learned 
and unlearned, who realize a present ful- 
filment of the promise, "They shall see 
God." We humbly join them, and swell 
the chorus to declare that "We all, with 

32 



The Glory. 

open face, beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as 
by the Spirit of the Lord." Glory! 

But how, it is asked, must men "turn 
to the Lord" to come into this light? 
Oh, that we might be simple, clear and 
helpful here! And, oh, that just at this 
line some earnest seeker after the light of 
God might turn with all the desire, and 
all the hope, and all the will unto Him! 
To us the matter reduces itself simply 
into a turning from, and a turning to. 
From self to the Lord. But perhaps it 
is necessary to state this a little more 
fully. Turning from self embraces a 
repudiation of sin as the practice of life, 
a rejection of worldly wisdom as the 
standard of light, and a renunciation of 
the law as the hope of salvation. The 
first is repentance pure and simple; the 
second is a turning from the idolatry of 
brains to Christ, the wisdom of God, and 
the third is the surrender of legalism for 
the liberty wherewith Christ makes us 
free. Self cleaves to sin, looks to rea- 
son, and leans on works of righteousness. 
Christ condemns sin, puts a premium on 
simplicity, and fulfils the law. It is 
harder to turn from a refined self than 
from a reprobate self, and harder still to 

33 



From Glory To Glory. 

turn from a religious self. Yet this lat- 
ter is the turning Paul claims, in Philip- 
pians, third, to have made when, after 
rehearsing his religious -effects, he says: 
"What things were gain to me, those I 
counted loss for Christ/' 

Beloved, you may have to turn from 
things which have given you a reputation 
for religion, not simply because the repu- 
tation may have pampered pride, but be- 
cause the things themselves may be 
legalistic rather than evangelical. You 
will have to turn from all dependence 
not only upon your works of morality, 
but your almsgiving, your Christian ser- 
vice, your prayers and other means of 
grace, which have stealthily usurped the 
throne of Christ that can rest only on an 
utter self-abnegation. 

Or, my dear reader, your turning to 
the Lord may probably involve a turn- 
ing from your literary standards and 
your educational leaders. The inspira- 
tion of Christ's word, the authenticity of 
His miracles, the efficacy of His atone- 
ment, all demand a better, bigger place 
than the arrogance of nineteenth century 
culture is disposed to grant. There is a 
place where not only what is called "so- 
ciety," but where even that more fasci- 
nating and more reasonable thing called 

34 



The Glory. 

"learning" becomes the Belshazzar pal- 
ace of self-gratification and the tower- 
ing Babel of selfish pride. Nor will you 
find resolute turning from these so easy 
as it looks, when it proves to be turning 
against the tide of fashionable drift and 
the course of boasting reason. But to 
come into the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God, we must — absolutely 
must — turn from self in its refined and in 
its religious forms, and from the sin of 
our hearts, as well as the sins of our 
lives. 

But it is, on the other hand, a turning 
to the Lord; to the people of the Lord 
— those who bear the marks of the true 
spiritual Israel ; to the Word of the Lord 
— not simply the literature of the Scrip- 
tures, but to the marrow of His truth; 
to the Spirit of the Lord, as teacher, 
leader, helper into the way of light; to 
the Cross of the Lord, as the propitiation 
for guilt and the fountain for cleansing; 
to the Lord Himself, as the one alto- 
gether lovely, inviting and accepting the 
adoration of the soul and the affection of 
the heart, the worthy Object of our con- 
fidence, the sufficient Source of our sal- 
vation, the lawful Sovereign of our wills. 

This, in brief, is "turning to the Lord." 
It includes both repentance and conse- 

35 



From Glory To Glory. 

cration; and it is evident, from the facts 
of common observation amongst Chris- 
tians, and the scriptural incitements to a 
perfect turning such as this, that the con- 
version — if you are pleased to so call it — 
of many is not complete, and this defec- 
tiveness in the souls turning to the Lord 
is surely the explanation of why the veil 
remains, and why it is so difficult, so im- 
possible to see. It is God's part to take 
away the veil. It is our part to turn 
unto the Lord. 



CHAPTER IV. 
©lorg Bttyib. 

"Beholding as in a Glass." 

There are two thoughts couched in 
this clause. The "glass/' and the "be- 
holding." The medium of the revelation, 
and the act or attitude of receiving it. 
Let us first look at the "Glass/' and then 
consider the "Beholding." 



THE GLASS. 

Many are the learned, and many the 
fanciful theories advanced concerning the 
nature and the qualities of this wonderful 
glass. Men in their zeal, and men in 
their bewilderment, have, from the mul- 
tiplicity of modern inventions, put all 
sorts of glasses into the text, many of 
which, very probably, Paul never saw 
nor thought of. At least three times in 
the New Testament is the figure of a 
glass used by apostles in picturing spirit- 

37 



From Glory To Glory. 

ual things. Once by James (i: 24); 
twice by Paul (I Cor. xiii: 12, and II 
Cor. v: 18). The former likens a man 
under the awakening of divine truth unto 
one beholding his own natural face in a 
glass. Paul, in the first text mentioned, 
speaks of us as now seeing through a 
glass; and in the second, he says: "We 
. . . beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord/' etc. It is evident that these 
are different kinds of glasses. Paul's 
first must have been a telescope. That 
of James must have been a looking-glass. 
But this second of Paul's, what can it be? 
It is not a glass we see through, but a 
glass we see in. Yet it is not a glass in 
which we see our own face, but one in 
w 7 hich we see the glory of God in the 
face of Christ Jesus. Both glasses — that 
of James and this of Paul — are revealers; 
but that is a self-revealer, while this is a 
Christ-revealer. It is more like the lens 
of a camera than like the negative plate; 
for w 7 hile, on the one hand, it does not 
so much magnify as it focalizes and de- 
fines, and, upon the other hand (if we 
attend closely to this text), we find it is 
not the glass itself which reproduces the 
likeness. That is done "as by the Spirit 
of the Lord." A mirror some have pre- 
ferred to translate this. And, perhaps, 

38 



The Glory. 

that is as near as we can come to it; only 
we must remember that there is some- 
thing supernatural about this mirror; for 
it shows another's face instead of our 
own. And it would be a frustration and 
loss of the true thought here, if we made 
the mistake of some and thought our 
own lives and character were the mirror 
meant, and that, through these the reve- 
lation of the Lord's glory made to others, 
was the lesson taught. No; all that fol- 
lows later and in different order and rela- 
tion. "We" are the beholders, and the 
glass is the medium of Christ's manifes- 
tation to us. Saints may be the world's 
Bible, but the Scriptures are ours. 

Though we may be somewhat at a loss 
to know what kind of a mirror Paul 
had in mind when he chose his simile, 
we are left in no doubt as to what he 
meant. Elsewhere he identifies this 
"glass," by which the glory of the Lord 
is revealed, as the Gospel. In Romans i: 
16-18, he declares that "therein (the 
Gospel of Christ) is the righteousness of 
God revealed from faith to* faith . . . 
and the wrath of God is revealed against 
all ungodliness and all unrighteousness 
of men." In this Scripture before us (II 
Cor. iii: 18) his meaning is made very 
plain when we read the preceding verses 
39 



From Glory To Glory. 

of context; the whole of which compares 
and contrasts the New Testament with 
the Old (see v. 6), the spirit with the 
letter (v. 6), the ministration of life and 
righteousness in Christ, with that of con- 
demnation and death in Moses (vs. 7, 8), 
that which remaineth with that which 
was done away (v. 11). 

What a wonderful man Paul was! 
How he could exalt the glory that ex- 
celleth, without denying or disparaging 
that which was made glorious (v. 10)! 
This is what he does in both of these 
Scriptures quoted. By reading a little 
farther in the first chapter of Romans we 
find his recognition and due appreciation 
of the revelation in nature. And by 
pondering this context now before us in 
II Corinthians, we see his just esteem of 
the revelation made through the law to 
Moses. But following him to his climax 
of glory, we see him place at the very 
summit of this mountain of light the 
revelation of the Gospel. It is in this 
glass that we behold the glory of the 
Lord. For, as we may find, Nature hid, 
and the law but dimly showed the crown- 
ing glory of the Lord, which was re- 
served for the Gospel to unfold. Thus 
let us be reminded that the superiority 
of privilege over the mere naturalist, and 

40 



The Glory. 

over the legalist in religion, is not only 
in the mental and moral state within our- 
selves (represented by the "open face") 
but in the superior and perfected revela- 
tion of this Gospel dispensation. "God, 
who at sundry times and in divers man- 
ner spake in times past unto the fathers 
by the prophets, hath in these last days 
spoken unto us by His Son" (Hebrews 
i: I, 2). 

Poor erring children as we are, how- 
ever, we make the mistake of gazing at 
the frame instead of looking into the 
glass. Or, passing that, we amuse and 
interest ourselves investigating and ana- 
lyzing the texture of the glass, instead of 
delighting ourselves in contemplating 
the object it reveals. The literature of 
the Word is not the Word. The critical 
examination of texts and translations is 
not the beholding of the glory of the 
Lord. The instruments of a scholar 
may be needed for that, but the eye of an 
unveiled heart is what is required for 
this. That is a misuse of the Gospel, 
which stops with the topography of 
Palestine, the ethnology of the Orient, 
the politics of Rome, the language and 
natural habits of the apostles, or even 
with the human history of the man Jesus. 
The bulk of Christian scholarship ends 

41 



From Glory To Glory. 

in knowledge about Christ and about the 
Gospel, rather than knowledge of the 
Gospel and of Christ. Therefore we 
call attention to the danger of too much 
literature and too much literalism in the 
study of the Gospel. By the latter we 
mean the insistence and the acceptance 
of the mere letter of the Gospel records, 
precepts and promises. "The words He 
spake unto us are spirit and life/' They 
stand for spiritual things and require 
spiritual apprehension and appropriation. 
"The ministry of the Gospel, to be effec- 
tive, cannot be in word only, but must 
be in power." It must be preached with 
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 
That in the Scriptures which can be ar- 
rived at by natural means of a literary, 
philosophical, scientific character is not 
the Gospel, but the shell only which 
holds the sweet Word of God. That 
communication of Bible truths which 
engages no other factors than those 
which can communicate and impress 
other knowledge is not Gospel preach- 
ing. And the acceptance of the truths 
of the Gospel, which is intellectual only 
and creedal simply, is not the acceptance 
of the living, loving, personal Christ 
who saves. Hence, beloved, we would 
have you distinguish between this 
42 



The Glory. 

"glass" and the frame in which we find 
it, and between employing the glass to 
see Christ and analyzing it, to under- 
stand its own elements. 



II, 



THE BEHOLDING. 

Next in importance to the glory of the 
Lord is the revelation of that glory, and 
next to the revelation is the glass by 
which it is revealed, and next to this is 
the faith by which it is beheld. We have 
already seen that there is a mind and 
heart preparation, and unveiling needed 
to qualify the soul for this beholding. 
An "open face" is prerequisite. Look 
into your experience for corroboration 
of this. How varying and vanishing 
have been your glimpses of Jesus when 
the veil has been on your heart, in con- 
trast with this full and steady beholding, 
or faith perfected and perpetuated! And 
how uncertain and unsatisfactory your 
progression when the revelations of His 
face were thus intercepted! The writer 
was much interested when he first saw 
the growing cotton fields in Georgia. 
He was told that the cotton was a "sun 
plant," depending very largely upon the 
direct rays of the sun for its life and 
43 



From Glory To Glory. 

growth and maturity. And, surely, it 
was a beautiful sight to see these long 
rows of plants across the plantation, with 
their faces all squarely turned toward the 
East in the morning; then to watch them 
as, looking upw r ard, they followed the 
sun from degree to degree, until at high 
noon they seemed to gaze fully into one 
another's faces; and thence they pur- 
sued him down the westward slope till, 
as he dropped below the horizon, they 
fairly stood on tip-toe to catch one last 
good-night beam. And in "the growing 
season" you might measure in inches the 
progress they had made that day. But 
had any cloud or shadow or accident to 
themselves marred their view, how dif- 
ferent it would have been ! And spiritual 
life is a sun plant. Its preservation, its 
progress, its fruitage require the un- 
broken view of Christ. "Looking unto 
Jesus" supports the soul in storm and 
conflict. "Beholding as in a glass" 
sustains the soul, under the Spirit opera- 
tions transforming it into the same 
image. 

This "beholding" is the attitude and 
attention and action of an abiding faith. 
"Turning to the Lord" has put the soul 
in that attitude. The "unveiling of the 
heart" has prepared it for that action and 

44 



The Glory. 

qualified it for that attention. This is 
what Paul calls the "perfecting of faith." 
Not that the range of faith's possible ob- 
servations is exhausted; for that is im- 
measurable. But the condition for faith 
and the quality of faith is perfected in 
the heart. One may have a sound 
orthodoxy, and yet have a very defective 
faith. The defects and deficiencies in 
one's faith will be according to the de- 
fect or deficiency of his turning to the 
Lord. The veil over the heart is an im- 
pediment to faith and a prevention of per- 
fect faith. An habitual beholder is to be 
distinguished from a chronic believer in 
the first principles of the oracles of God. 
There is a somewhat panoramic progres- 
sion in the revelations of this glass, and 
one must be on the move to keep up. 
A devout woman, notwithstanding her 
life's journey had carried her over many 
mountains of difficulty, and through 
many seas of sorrow, with pinching 
poverty at every step, compared her ex- 
periences in our hearing to a most de- 
lightful wedding trip, in which she had 
the constant felicity of her Bridegroom's 
presence, and was at every stage and 
turn of the route enrapt with fresh sur- 
prises in the beauties of His providence 
and the riches of His grace. "Behold- 

45 



From Glory To Glory. 

ing" is a perfect, perpetual, progressing 
faith. It is the purified soul under the 
fascination of Jesus' eye. Spell-bound 
the heart is "looking unto Jesus." 



46 



CHAPTER V. 
<£\)t <Slorg of t!)e Corir. 

Already our attention has been drawn 
to the fact that "the glory of the Lord" 
is revealed in the Gospel as nowhere else, 
and as it has never before been made 
known unto the sons of men. And we 
are convinced that the purpose of this 
revelation is not simply to fill us with 
awe, but (marvelous as it must appear) 
that we might participate in the same 
glory and reflect it, too, on earth. Yes, 
it is true that "man's chief end is to 
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." 
And this enjoyment consists, first, in the 
vision of His glory; second, in partaking 
of His nature; third, in the fulfilment of 
our own chief end by reflecting and ex- 
tending this glory amongst men. Reve- 
lation, reproduction and reflection of 
"the glory of the Lord" is man's deepest 
delight and his highest honor. That is 
to say, the glory of God and the glory of 
man converge in one. No subject, then, 
on earth or in heaven can be of greater 
moment to men than this. How insuffi- 

47 



From Glory To Glory. 

cient we are to even hint at it, much less 
to attempt to delineate or describe it. 
But two things will aid us, as they some- 
what limit and define this "glory of the 
Lord." 

First, it is the "glory of His grace. " 
Second, this glory is revealed in the 
Gospel. 

This, we see, distinguishes it (in order 
and degree, if not in kind) from those 
things of His eternal power and God- 
head, which are clearly seen from the 
creation of the world; that is, the revela- 
tion of God's attributes in Nature. We 
have wondered sometimes why so> much 
of systematic theology was devoted to 
the being and the natural attributes of 
God. These are found in Nature's 
primer. But the Gospel is God's family 
album for the elect. Again, this dis- 
tinguishes it from that partial revelation 
of God made by inspiration before the 
Gospel. Moses had prayed: "I beseech 
Thee, show me Thy glory;" and the 
Lord had answered: "I will make all my 
goodness pass before thee, and I will 
proclaim the name of the Lord before 
thee/' etc.; but he added, "Thou canst 
not see my face" (Exodus xxxiii: 18-20). 
But now the chosen apostle to the 
Gentiles declares that "God, who com- 

48 



The Glory. 

manded the light to shine out of dark- 
ness, hath shined in our hearts to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Christ Jesus'' (II 
Corinthians iv: 6). 



The "glory of the Lord" centers in His 
person. Much of human glory centers 
in things, and States and powers. Much 
of worldly glory in institutions, organiza- 
tions, schemes, plans, systems, etc. In- 
ventions, conquests, attainments, ac- 
complishments, "degrees/' possessions, 
positions, and other things which, like 
the flowers of the grass, are to wither 
away, constitute the glory of man. But 
God's glory is in Himself. "God made 
known His ways unto Moses, His acts 
unto the children of men;" yet some- 
thing within us cried with Philip, "Show 
us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Rev- 
elation to man was not perfect, nor 
human satisfaction complete, till God 
was manifest in the flesh, "for it pleased 
the Father that in Him (Christ) should 
all fulness dwell." Jesus Himself hath 
said that "this is life eternal that they 
might know Thee, the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." 

49 



From Glory To Glory. 

Doctors may study the anatomy of man, 
and understand my parts and functions; 
the public may see my course and con- 
duct, and know something of my char- 
acter; but loved ones are privileged to 
know me — perhaps in various relations, 
as husband, or father, or son, or minis- 
ter; but from whatever standpoint, it 
matters not, my manifestation to them 
and their knowledge of me is personal. 
And please distinguish this, too, from 
philosophical reasonings about my "per- 
sonality/' or psychological dissections of 
my "threefold nature/' etc. Personal 
knowledge differs from all these, and 
love counts it supreme. Just so the 
glory of the Lord is in the person of 
Jesus Christ. 

The glory of the Lord is in His nature. 
We distinguish between nature and 
character; for character is, somehow, a 
combination of nature, individuality and 
the reflex effects of conduct; whereas, 
what we now have in mind is nature 
simply. We recognize the distinction 
everywhere, as when we speak of the 
nature of men, or of birds, or beasts, or 
flowers, without any reference whatever 
to any individual peculiarities, specific 
conditions or stages of development. 
Perhaps, too, we should observe a dis- 

50 



The Glory. 

tinction between "nature" and either in- 
tellectual or physical attributes, as some- 
thing behind these all, investing them, 
and determining their course and career 
under diversified conditions and circum- 
stances, and still being distinct from 
either course or conduct. 

Now, even so precious and so profit- 
able a study and art as the imitation of 
Christ, is not without its perversions and 
abuses. Jesus' life in the flesh was but the 
movement and a manifestation of a nat- 
ure behind that life. His glory it not in 
His conduct as a man, but in a nature 
which disposed Him to become a man, 
and which, as a man, behaved as He 
did. Following the footsteps of Christ, 
may by some of those strange perver- 
sions whereby Satan strives to defeat 
grace, but lead us astray and away from 
the mark, if it leaves us standing on the 
footprints without coming into the secret 
place of the Most High, to the nature be- 
hind either foot or prints. The result in 
such cases is (as in all cases of mere imi- 
tation) an artificial Christianity. But we 
are called to be "partakers of the divine 
nature. " As the face expresses the nat- 
ural disposition, so in the face of Christ 
Jesus we behold these traits of His 
nature, 



From Glory To Glory. 

His is an outgoing and an outgiving 
nature — too great to be self-contained. 
The Gospel is not so much a revelation 
of God — that He is, or where, or what, or 
for how long He has been. These are 
told elsewhere. But in this glass we see 
God for others — a nature overflowing 
the bounds of His own self-hood. Noth- 
ing so universally proves that man has 
lost the image of God, as does universal 
selfishness. Yet there are some traces of 
the shadow left. Wifely devotion and 
maternal love speak something still of a 
nature that lives and that is for others. 
Tribal instinct and the more cultured 
type of the same thing, called patriotism, 
hints at & nature that is greater than the 
individual. Philanthropy is the effort of 
a man to climb up to this ideal. But in 
Jesus incarnate we behold a life with no 
other excuse or explanation of existence 
but that it is for others ; and not only for 
some others, but for all others. Con- 
genialities, affinities, family ties, patriotic 
devotions, etc., all involve limitations — 
limitations, too, which often involve cor- 
responding antagonism. But here is 
One whose devotion know T s no bounds; 
a nature which pours itself out, all out, 
for others, and for all others. This is 
"the glory of the Lord." Not the in^ 

52 



The Glory. 

finitude of His might, nor of His wis- 
dom, nor the length of His days, but the 
infinitude of His love. Conditions may 
determine the course of His administra- 
tion; circumstances may affect the mani- 
festations of His love, but His nature is 
changeless and exhaustless. God is 
love. 

His is an intense nature. Next to 
man's animosities is man's apathy. Luke- 
warmness in righteousness is akin to 
wickedness itself. But the nature of the 
Lord is not only true, it is fervent. His 
sympathy is not sentiment but succor. 
He is not only ready to save, He seeks 
to save. No strong impulse of our nat- 
ure more than faintly suggests the al- 
mighty propulsions of the divine heart to 
usward. Men may sometimes glory in 
their conservatism, but never can they 
command admiration if manifestly feeble 
in moral force. God's love, like sun- 
light, may sometimes appear as gentle 
beams; but it always rises to a meridian 
heat. 

Next, His glory is in His righteous- 
ness. Not simply that the Judge of all 
the earth does right; not merely that He 
walked in ways of righteousness, but 
that He is right. He is "the Lord, our 
righteousness." The eye is no more for 

53 



From Glory To Glory. 

light, nor the ear for music, the bird is no 
more for the air, nor the fish for the sea, 
than is the Lord our God for righteous- 
ness. 'Tis His nature. He is righteous. 
He is "of purer eyes than to behold ini- 
quity." 

In Jesus Christ this, the glory of His 
righteousness, appears in two ways. 
First, in His successful resistance of all 
the powers of unrighteousness, both as 
arrayed against Him in the battle of 
human life, which He had voluntarily 
assumed, and in the fierce antagonism 
aroused by the prince of darkness against 
Him as the Prince of Righteousness; for, 
mark you, there is a dual probation and 
a double assault for the one who> is not 
only righteous in himself but who is set, 
also, for the making of others righteous. 
Jesus withstood the wickedness of the 
world as it approaches and environs 
every man, and He withstood, moreover, 
the malice of Satan directed toward 
Himself as the righteous Redeemer of 
men. 

Second, in the force of His righteous 
nature, He introduced and sustains in 
the world a power enabling men in like 
manner to* resist unrighteousness in 
every form, and to lift all who believe 
into His own righteous likeness, Con- 

54 



The Glory. 

sider this, that the outgiving and the out- 
going of Christ's nature is not merely the 
outpouring of His sympathy; but it is, 
also, the outpouring of His righteous- 
ness itself. His glory is not alone in that 
He Himself is righteous, but rather in 
that His righteousness is sufficient to 
flood the earth as the waters cover the 
sea. Nor is the zenith of His glory 
reached in the imputation of His right- 
eous merit unto men, but rather in the 
transmission of His righteous nature to 
His people. Having evidenced the pos- 
sibility of divine righteousness in the 
flesh by an actual personal incarnation, 
subject to precisely the same environ- 
ment as our own, he condemned sin in 
the flesh, and brought within our reach 
an actual, personal righteousness. Thus 
the glory of His righteousness is not 
simply in that He doeth righteously, or 
that He judgeth in righteousness, but in 
that He is our righteousness, in both an 
imputational and an actual sense. 

Next His glory is in His cross. The 
love and the righteousness of the Lord 
converge in Christ crucified. Sympathy 
here has not only passed sentiment, it 
has passed service, and proceeds to sacri- 
fice, and that to ultimate or crowning 
sacrifice, even the sacrifice of life. This 

55 



From Glory To Glory. 

is the climactic revelation of the glory of 
the Lord. It transcends the sublimest ex- 
hibition of devotion in history. "Scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die, yet 
peradventure for a good man some 
would even dare to die; but God com- 
mendeth His love toward us in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
for us" (Rom. x: 7, 8). This is accepted 
everywhere and throughout all time and 
eternity as the concluding and crowning 
credential of God's love to man: "Here- 
by perceive we the love of God, because 
He laid down His life for us" (I John hi: 
16). Calvary is the apex of the pyra- 
mid of love rising throughout the ages of 
divine goodness, and resting eternally in 
Himself. 

Yet the cross is not only the revelation 
of His glorious love, it is likewise the 
exhibition of the glory of His righteous- 
ness. From its divine side (for His death 
was voluntary in Him, though necessary 
for us) it glorifies God's righteousness in 
that it countenances no abrogation nor 
suspension of righteous law, nor any 
nullification of righteous penalty, but 
sustains and enforces righteous govern- 
ment by providing pardon only in the 
sacrifice of a substitute. Could sinful 
man have escaped without penitence, 

56 



The Glory. 

penalty or propitiation, then the power 
of God's righteousness would have been 
wrecked and the prospect of man's right- 
eousness ruined. But we, "being now 
justified by the blood of Christ/' our 
honor of God's law is enhanced beyond 
measure, the enormity of our sins ap- 
pears to us in deepest dye; so that, con- 
comitant with our acceptance of the 
Lord our righteousness, we experience a 
most violent hatred of sin and a most 
intense love of holiness. Thus is the 
righteousness of the Lord glorified in 
our hearts, and crowned before the uni- 
verse as well. That "crown of thorns" 
invests (or exhibits) our Lord with an 
infinitely higher honor than any royal 
diadem could have done had man's 
salvation been unaccomplished, or had it 
been proffered at a lesser cost. This is 
the glory of the Lord, that He can be 
"just and yet the justifier of the un- 
godly.'' 

And even from the human, earthward 
side the glory of the Lord's righteous- 
ness appears on the cross in that He ac- 
cepted aversion, abuse, assault and 
murder at men's hands, rather than to 
consent to evasion, compromise, sur- 
render or sacrifice of righteousness. As 
it takes shadows to define the glory of 

57 



From Glory To Glory. 

light, so often it takes the shame and the 
sin of some men to show the honor and 
goodness of others. It is so here. That 
noonday midnight overhanging Calvary's 
cross but dimly pictures the darkness of 
the moral night in those that slew Him. 
As He hangs there His glory shines in 
a righteousness that would meekly die 
rather than live to condone sin. 

And not only does the blood of Christ 
thus show forth the glory of God's love, 
and the glory of His righteousness, but 
it likewise shows "the glory of His 
grace." For it supplies a perfect antidote 
for sin. It extracts the moral virus from 
man's being. It is that "fountain open 
in the house of David for sin and for un- 
cleanness." It is at once the source of 
the life and love and righteousness of 
God in man. Creation made the form 
of man from dust. The breath of God 
might give primal man a living soul in 
the image divine; but the "blood of the 
Son of God" is the life of a new creation. 
By it we put on the new human nature 
which, after God, is created in righteous- 
ness and true holiness. 

Lastly, we see the glory of His power 
in the resurrection of our Lord. Not 
simply in that He had power to raise the 
dead; for this was almost paralleled in 

58 



The Glory. 

creation, and was, at least in several in- 
stances, exhibited while He was on earth. 
But the "glory of the Lord" in His resur- 
rection appears in that His was a nature 
which could not be holden of death. As 
His love could not be self-contained, 
but must pour itself out upon us; and as 
His righteousness is unto us, so, too, 
His life destroys that last enemy, death, 
and rises superior to the grave. The 
apostles regard His resurrection as not 
only the final proof and crowning truth 
of His Gospel, and the guarantee of our 
own resurrection as well, but they men- 
tion it as the culminating revelation of 
His power: "The exceeding greatness of 
His power to usward who believe ac- 
cording to the working of His mighty 
power which He wrought in Christ when 
He raised Him from the dead." 

To conclude, then, the "glory of the 
Lord" is a vanquishing glory. Sin and 
death disappear before it. It is a crown- 
ing glory. Love and life are its diadem 
and righteousness its throne. And, of 
necessity, it is an everlasting glory. 

And wonder of wonders — we are to 
be changed into the same image! 



59 



PART II. 

W$t arrange 

"Into the Same Image." 



61 



CHAPTER I. 
©ur (JLransnmtattcm 

"Into the Same Image" 

This is, in many respects, the most 
wonderful of all truths. It is the most 
stupendous of all problems. It is the 
most glorious of all results. So far as 
God's glory is in His works, this is His 
unspeakable glory. To make a creature, 
any living creature, was glorious; to 
make the creature man in His own like- 
ness was more so by far; to appear Him- 
self in the flesh, and manifest His glory 
threw all these others into the shade; 
but now to transform a creature so that 
he partakes of the divine nature, a sinful 
creature so that he possesses the divine 
holiness, a mortal being so that he shares 
the everlasting eternity of God, a de- 
based worm and slave so that he sits for- 
ever on the throne with the Most High, 
this is glory not only indescribable but 
inconceivable in its splendor. 'Tis here 
that the glory of God and the glory of 
man are one, In reaching "our calling's 

63 



From Glory To Glory. 

glorious hope" we are made "to the 
praise of His glory." 

The language before us, corroborated 
by the universal experience of the race, 
assumes the need of a change. Some 
are foolish enough to deny this. Some, 
indeed, are under the hallucination that 
man's moral state is not depraved. We 
presume that evidence so cumulative, so 
complete and so demonstrative, could 
not be adduced upon any other subject 
as that which history, experience and 
Scripture furnish in proof of the univers- 
ality, totality and incorrigibility of 
human corruption. Yet, strangely, in 
the face of all this, there are those who 
rise to affirm that "we have no sin," 
thus deceiving themselves and denying 
the truth. Men and teachers appear to 
insinuate that sin has no other genesis 
but in the act of imitating other sinners, 
and that righteousness requires no other 
force than what exists in human nature, 
directed by a determined will. 

But Revelation speaks otherwise. It 
reveals the sinfulness of the human heart. 
It shows unmistakably that "we are by 
nature very far gone from original right- 
eousness and of ourselves inclined only 
to evil, and that continually." "The 
thoughts and imaginations of our hearts 

64 



The Change. 

are wicked." The bias or predisposition 
of our souls is sinward. This fountain 
of evil within our natures supplies not 
only the streams of iniquity, whose dark 
course runs through the whole path of 
human history, and covers the world at 
every point, but it likewise intercepts the 
progress of righteousness and proves that 
even the good that we would we do not. 
Deprivation and depravation character- 
ize our natural state. That principle and 
power of righteousness which proceeds 
from the divine presence in the human 
soul is withdrawn, and an infusion of 
wickedness possesses us. Our change 
must be not only negative and relative; it 
must be positive and actual. This is 
what Jesus sought to impress upon Nico- 
demus when H>e said: "That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh." "Ye must be 
born again." The necessity of a change 
lies in the spiritual nature of Christ's 
kingdom on the one hand and the fleshly 
or carnal nature of the human heart on 
the other. 

That the nature of a thing could be 
changed seems well nigh incredible. 
That the properties of some things and 
the characteristics of some persons may 
be modified or moulded or reversed, even 
science and philosophy may admit, But 

85 



From Glory To Glory. 

that the nature of a moral being should 
be radically altered, and that notwith- 
standing the whole drift of life's current 
was against such a change, and the in- 
dividual himself in the bonds of one who 
opposed it with all malice and might, is 
one of the stupendous miracles brought 
to light by Revelation, and brought to 
pass in actual Christian experience. 
Hence, while the Lord's words thus 
quoted emphasize the necessity of a 
change, and the Acts and the Epistles of 
the apostles abound in statements and 
declarations of a change which really has 
been made — "Translated," "Passed from 
death unto life," "Quickened," "Born of 
God," etc. These are some of the ex- 
pressions with which they mention that 
translation from darkness to light and 
from the kingdom of Satan to> that of 
God's dear Son, with which they em- 
phasize the truth that "if any man be in 
Christ he is a new creature. Old things 
are passed away, and behold, all things 
are become new." 

The mystery and the marvel of sin is 
in the pollution of man's moral nature. 
The mystery and the marvel of salvation 
is in the complete transformation of 
man's nature according to the provision 
and power of the Gospel. To be divested 



The Change. 

of that pollution whereby we had an 
affinity, a similarity and a relationship 
with Satan, and to be invested with that 
righteousness whereby we may possess 
an affinity, a similarity and <a relation- 
ship with the Son of God is the high 
calling held out to man in the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. "We are made partakers 
of the divine nature having escaped the 
corruption that is in the world through 
lust" (see II Peter i: 4). And Paul says: 
"The truth is in Jesus that ye put off 
concerning the former conversation, the 
old man which is corrupt according to 
the deceitful lust; and that ye put on the 
new man which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness" (see 
Ephesians iv: 21-24). 

Few there must be, we think, who 
sincerely believe that man needs no 
change and is incorrupt, though some 
advance the idea that he is of himself 
capable of righteousness, and that he is 
not inwardly sinful. There are more, we 
fear however, who fail to fathom the 
depths of the change we need. They do 
not strike the root of the matter, nor see 
that it is not man's conduct simply, nor 
his habits which need transformation, 
but his nature which demands transmu- 
tation. Or if they see this, that our be- 

67 



From Glory To Glory. 

ing "transformed" is to be wrought "by 
the renewing of our mind/' they fail to 
see, or hesitate to believe, how great a 
change is to be thus wrought; that it is 
into His image, and thence "from glory 
to glory." Pride of heart conceals the 
kind of change that is needed, and unbe- 
lief of heart hides the kind of change 
that is provided. 

How we need it reiterated in our ears! 
How the Church needs to hear and to 
declare the doctrine of indwelling sin! 
How with line upon line, and precept 
upon precept, we need to have emphasis 
laid upon the fact of inbred sin! With 
what urging, too, should we show that, 
since man's need is a change of nature, 
it must (in the very nature of the case) 
be a change which nothing in his own 
nature can effect! Nothing in the nature 
of the individual, and nothing in the nat- 
ure of the aggregation of individuals, 
nor of any force that man possesses or 
controls in Nature can work that change 
whereby he may reach his chief end and 
glorify God and enjoy Him forever. His 
every effort in this direction will vanish 
in the echo: "Can the Ethiopian change 
his skin or the leopard his spots?" Con- 
sider carefully this language: "We are 
changed into the same image." We are 

68 



The Change. 

passive rather than active. It is not that 
we change but that "we are changed." 
The fact is, we have no more power to 
change our own nature than to change 
that of any other creature. We may 
educate horses or dogs or pigs or even 
men, and we can train either of these in 
arts of imitation to a high degree, but 
they are still horses or dogs or pigs or 
men. We cannot change their natures. 
And this is true notwithstanding the 
scintilations of righteousness which the 
law may have flashed into our minds or 
the throbbings of holy purpose which an 
awakened conscience may have animated 
in our bosom; for the disappointments 
and defeats of these promises and pur- 
poses are occasioned by that in our nat- 
ure which they have helped rather to 
discover than to destroy. Hence the 
wailing cry, "O, wretched man that I 
am, who shall deliver me from this body 
of death?" 

The natural man must be made a 
spiritual man: "As we have borne the 
image of the earthly, so shall we bear the 
image of the heavenly." And this is 
true not merely in that final and physical 
sense to which Paul refers in his discus- 
sion of the doctrine of the resurrection. 
It is true, first, in a spiritual and moral 

69 



From Glory To Glory. 

sense. Even now "we are changed into 
the same image." As that mysterious 
law of heredity has transmitted to us not 
only the family physiognomy and the 
parental traits, but the race proclivity 
and the universal depravity, so a law 
higher, greater and more mysterious still 
transmutes us into the very nature and 
image of Christ. And this, mark you 
well, is not only resemblance wrought by 
imitation or affinity developed by asso- 
ciation and contact, but it is a likeness — 
yea, an identity of nature wrought in us 
by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus." 

A dual relationship and a double like- 
ness are to exist forever between us and 
our Elder Brother. He partook of our 
nature; we partake of His. He became 
the son of a woman; we received power 
to become the sons of God. Incarnation 
possessed Him of a physical being with 
all of its normal susceptibilities and pos- 
sibilities; salvation possesses us of a 
spiritual being with all of its affinities, 
aspirations and powers. "As He is so 
are we in this world." 

This then is the clear teaching of this 
Gospel: (i) Man needs a change; (2) by 
Gospel grace and power we are changed; 
(3) this change is into His image. 

70 



CHAPTER II. 
Stye IproaBB of (Hl)ange. 

("From Glory to Glory." ) 

A few prefatory words may serve as a 
connecting link and to introduce the 
"several benefits which do accompany 
and flow from salvation;" or, "The De- 
grees of Salvation." 

The glory of the Lord is in His person; 
and in His nature of life and love and 
righteousness. 
The glory of man is in the apprehension 
of his spiritual possibilities, which em- 
brace a personal life, love and right- 
eousness like his Lord's. 
Man glorifies God, and likewise enjoys 
Him when the divine nature is repro- 
duced in him and reflected through 
him. 

The glory of the Lord and the glory of 
man are one in that the attainment of 
man's highest honor is the fulfilment 
of God's greatest praise. 
71 



From Glory To Glory. 

No man can attain his own glory or 
fulfil the glory of the Lord in his own 
natural state of heart. 
Yet that it is possible for man here and 
now to be "to the glory of His grace, " 
is everywhere maintained in the Gos- 
pel, insomuch that the glory of the 
Lord Himself is involved in the gra- 
cious glory of man. 
For it is the avowed purpose of the 
Gospel, not only to reveal the glory of 
the Lord, but to change us into the same 
image. The plan and progress of this 
change is the theme of this chapter. And 
we note, first, that 

IT IS WROUGHT BY DEGREES. 

And please notice that there is a little 
difference between this statement and the 
very common notion that salvation is 
gradual. At first glance these may seem 
the same. But are they? The grad- 
ualist in religious matters is too apt to 
mean a growth which is altogether in- 
sensible and undefined. If it can at all 
be measured, it is only by a sort of a 
dull, vague comparison, either with our- 
selves or amongst ourselves, and then 
only with respect to measure instead of 
definite and easily distinguished degrees 

72 



The Change. 

of transformation. It is like when one 
measures the breadth of a leaf or the 
height of a stalk in the growing season, 
and not as when we distinguish between 
blade and bud, or between blossom and 
fruit, or between even the setting and 
the ripening of the fruit itself. It is as 
though we talked of light and more light, 
and not as when we distinguish between 
day-dawn and sunrise, or between sun- 
up and noon; as when one speaks of 
water and more water, rather than of a 
well and of a river, or of rivers and 
oceans, etc. What every intelligent 
Christian should know from the very 
start, is not simply that there is "more to 
follow," but that there are distinct and 
definite degrees of advancement beyond. 
Notice the language of Scriptures on 
this point: "Herein is the righteousness 
of God revealed, from faith to faith," and 
"grace for grace," and once again, "from 
glory to glory." Beside these and sim- 
ilar didactic statements, there is the clear 
and frequent recognition of distinct and 
successive blessings, and of correspond- 
ingly definite and well marked classes of 
believers. John emphasizes the import- 
ance and value of his baptism, when he 
says: "I indeed baptize you," yet he only 
thus paves the way to the announcement 
' 73 



From Glory To Glory. 

of the One greater than he, who should 
"baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire." 
Accordingly we find later, even after 
John's ministry had ceased, people and 
preachers who, though in the way of the 
Lord, had come only as far as "John's 
Baptism," and others again, who had fol- 
lowed on to the baptism with the Spirit. 
Paul recognizes and describes a stage of 
Christian experience which he entitles, 
"Babes in Christ," and of which he pred- 
icates the remaining of carnality. These 
he incites to the next degree beyond, 
which he terms the "spiritual," and 
which he in several instances shows 
capacitates and qualifies for both higher 
revelations and greater exploits in the 
kingdom. The civil law does not more 
exactly distinguish between a man and a 
minor, than does the New Testament 
distinguish between "little children," 
"young men" and "fathers." And an- 
atomy and physiology no more fully 
recognize the various stages and condi- 
tions of human life than does the Gospel 
reveal those states of souls, and degrees 
of experience, which we call "blessings," 
"benefits/' "graces," and which the great 
apostle not only at times summed up as 
the "all things which are ours," or as our 
"being complete in Him," etc., but which 

74 



The Change. 

he, likewise, more specifically designated 
as the "things" to which he reached out 
in the "before," and for which he was 
content to forget "things which were be- 
hind." 

Three dangers beset our perception of 
these things, as well as of the great law 
of spiritual progression which underlies 
them: 

First, the materialism and rationalism 
which infests culture and higher educa- 
tion, tend constantly both to magnify 
things of nature, and to throw shadows 
on things of grace; so that skepticism 
concerning the supernatural, both in 
Scripture and in Christian experience, is 
propagated far and wide with learning; 
and scientific theories of long geological 
periods in the earth's formation dispose 
many minds to conceive of similarly 
long, though less clearly defined, periods 
in the development of spiritual life. 

Second, the great and gracious revival 
of the new birth, which has marked and 
traversed the last century and a half, has 
by the very nature of the case and by the 
constitution of man's mind fastened at- 
tention on that one thing alone; so that, 
while the learning of our times is dis- 
posed to cry, there is nothing at all in 
religion, the religion of our day almost 

75 



From Glory To Glory. 

declares that conversion is all there is of 
salvation. 

Thirdly, the loose views and looser 
practice of the Church with respect to 
spiritual growth furnish a fruitful source 
of darkness on this greatest of all sub- 
jects. For even while all profess to be- 
lieve in growth, and while a few even ac- 
cept the truth of distinctive stages of 
advancement, yet by far the great major- 
ity know nothing of the science and art 
whereby the spiritual life is to be propa- 
gated, prospered and propelled. The 
average church equipment is as little 
adapted and furnished for the soul's ad- 
vancement after conversion as our Gov- 
ernment found itself recently in its prep- 
arations for war after so long a period 
of peace. In fact, there seems to be a 
prevalent presumption that spiritual pro- 
gression is automatic, and that by its 
own vitality, aided, perhaps, by the reflex 
action of Christian work, the soul will 
prosper and advance without direct at- 
tention and ministry to the subjective 
state and the successive attainments of 
Christians. Hence, despite our enorm- 
ous activity and our gigantic growth as 
churches, we have good reason to be- 
lieve that spiritual death and dwarfage is 
a sure consequence where the Pauline 

76 



The Change. 

method of a direct ministry for the "per- 
fecting of faith," for the "fulness of 
Christ," for the conferring of a "second 
benefit," etc., is abandoned. 

It therefore behooves us to remember 
(i) that, in the very nature of the case, 
all of this glory cannot be communicated 
to us at once; (2) that its attainment is 
by evangelical and not by natural means; 
(3) that the various benefits of the atone- 
ment have their complement in various 
and successive works of grace in the 
soul; (4) that each grace, in its order, 
supplies the capacity and the credential 
for the next to follow; (5) that the major- 
ity of even real Christians have only 
taken the first degree, and that by ne- 
glect of the laws of spiritual progression 
retain that degree with difficulty and 
in an abnormal state; (6) that God's 
highest honor and our own deepest de- 
light hinge upon our successful and 
speedy advancement from glory to glory. 



77 



CHAPTER III. 
®t)e ©lorg of £\k. 

Before considering a few of the car- 
dinal degrees of glory, let us pause to 
notice the significance and suggestive- 
ness of three prepositions in this wonder- 
ful text, for very often the little words of 
the Bible shed more light upon the way 
of salvation than do the big words of 
theology: "Into," "From," "To." See 
how it reads: "Changed into the same 
image from glory to glory." Now, here 
is not only the doctrine of degrees in 
grace, but also the teaching of two dis- 
tinct kinds of change. The one is a 
translation "into," the other is an ad- 
vancement "from" and "to," after we 
have been changed "into" — a promotion 
thence "from glory to glory." Call it a 
"full conversion," if you will; or call it a 
"complete regeneration;" or call it the 
"fulness of the blessing," or the "fulness 
of Christ/' or the "having Christ formed 
within us," or the "being sanctified 
wholly," or the "coming to the stature of 

78 



The Change. 

man in Christ," or whatever you please, 
it is evident that somewhere and some- 
when very near the beginning of spiritual 
progression there is for the soul such a 
perfect translation or transmutation into 
Christ as that all subsequent promotion 
is "from glory to glory" — that is, pro- 
motion in the position and glorious 
realm of spiritual being rather than a 
never ending translating from sin and 
shame to righteousness and glory. 

Too much attention cannot be given, 
nor too much importance attached to 
this point. It is right here that the most 
serious of errors prevail concerning the 
nature of growth in grace. It is right 
here that a subtle pessimism concerning 
the possibilities or probabilities of grace 
prevents both the glory of God and the 
glory of man. The idea that growth in 
grace is to consist in a lifelong and never 
ending getting rid of sins has no place in 
Scripture and is fatal to the true idea of 
a life-long walk and a life-long advance- 
ment in the holiness and righteousness 
of Christ, which has no negative element. 
The key to the sure and steady and swift 
ascent in the scale of glory is in a perfect 
translation into the kingdom of glory. 
Thus Paul (in Ephesians iv: 13-15) pre- 
faces our growing up into Him in all 

79 



From Glory To Glory. 

things with our having come to the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ; and the failure to grow steadily 
and symmetrically, which is so general, 
is due to a lack of the fulness of Christ, 
which is the perfect qualification for 
growth. 

But we turn now to notice the glory 
of life. Life, indeed (like each of the 
other glories we shall mention), may be 
viewed in a most general way as compre- 
hending the whole of glory, even unto 
the crown of life awarded at the end of 
the race. But we must think of life in 
Jesus here more specifically and particu- 
larly, in contrast with both that judicial 
and that actual death into which sin had 
thrown us, and that everlasting death to 
which the judgment decree will consign 
the unsaved. 

It must, indeed, seem strange to the 
natural man to hear us talk as though he 
were really and already dead. Especially 
when he can show so many signs both 
of life physical and of life intellectual, and 
more especially since this his natural life 
is capable of so much pleasure, so much 
power and so much refinement, and most 
emphatically when it can be shown in 
evidence that this refinement can pose in 
most exact moral attitude, and even in 

80 



The Change. 

ecclesiastical vestments. Yet it is to just 
such specimens of high grade religious 
and rational refinement of the natural 
man that the Lord of Life declares: "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in 
you" (John vi: 53). There is an inner 
life to which man is a stranger save as he 
derives it from the blood of Christ by a 
personal appropriation. 

The glory of our life in Jesus has a 
fourfold aspect: 

I. Justification unto life. 

II. Regeneration unto life. 

III. The more abundant life. 

IV. The crown of life. 

The first of these is none other than 
the removal of the sentence of death that 
was against us, and the renewal to the 
soul that trusts in Jesus of the right to 
live. This is the glory of one who has 
been under a "life sentence" and has 
been pardoned by the Governor. This 
pardon not only gives him liberty from 
his dungeon, but it protects him against 
further trouble from the law on account 
of those his past offences. It entitles 
him, too, to the privileges and powers of 
citizenship. Our sentence of death is 

81 



From Glory To Glory. 

thus removed by Jesus, who tasted death 
for us. 

But, in the second place, "to as many 
as received Him, to them gave He power 
to become the sons of God, even to them 
which believe on His name: which were 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" 
(John i: 12, 13). This most explicit text 
is exceedingly valuable as not only 
clearly stating the spiritual state of the 
disciples during the incarnation, but like- 
wise as declaring a positive generation of 
the life of God in the soul of him that 
believes on Jesus. Hence, when the 
"New Birth" is offered to any modern 
Nicodemus it may, now as in Jesus' 
time, be utterly beyond human compre- 
hension as the blowing wind; and yet, as 
in Jesus' time, it may be matter of not 
only authoritative declaration, but of 
credible testimony as well, for "we speak 
that we do know and testify that we have 
seen," is as applicable to-day with re- 
spect to regeneration as when the Master 
uttered these words (for Himself and 
His disciples) on that subject to. the 
learned ruler in Israel. 

There are three fundamental and final 
tests of this actual life in Jesus: (1) the 
test of love. The love of God, the love of 

82 



The Change. 

the brethren, and the love of all men's 
souls inherent in the life which is from 
above; (2) the test of truth. Apprehension 
of the truth, acceptance of the truth, ad- 
herence to the truth, and affirmation of 
the truth. Of course, we mean not 
simply truthfulness here, but -"truth as it 
is in Jesus." The new life has a percep- 
tion of truth, an affection for truth, an 
adjustment to truth, and it steadily seeks 
an advance of and aggression in truth; 
(3) the test of heavenly mindedness. 
This is shown by an aversion for the 
carnal, a subordination of the physical 
and temporal, an aspiration for the heav- 
enly ■, and especially by a longing next 
for "the more abundant life." Now, we 
believe it to be one of the brightest and 
most hopeful signs of the present state 
of the Church that there is such a wide- 
spread and deep awakening on the sub- 
ject of. "the life more abundant." For 
this, on the one hand, argues that large 
numbers in all the churches, despite the 
formalism of this age, are in the enjoy- 
ment of the new life; for only such know 
of and aspire to the more abundant life; 
and, oji the other hand, it is the day- 
daw^ of assurance that a mighty and 
somewhat general Pentecost is awaiting 
the Church. For Christ has truly prom- 
ts 



From Glory To Glory. 

ised us a fulness of life: "I am come that 
they might have life and that they might 
have it more abundantly" (John x: 10). 
The life which is here promised stands, 
as we have seen, in contrast with the 
natural death of the world. The life 
more abundantly is (i) more abundant in 
comparison with the original life which 
God breathed into man's nostrils, when 
he became a living soul. For where sin 
did abound grace does much more 
abound. Redemption in Jesus is greater 
than the wreck in Adam and greater 
than creation itself. The glory which man 
has in Christ is greater than any glory 
toe could have ever had without Him. 
But it stands (2) in comparison with not 
only that decayed and enfeebled life 
which is manifest in so many believers 
who, by one means or another, have 
come into an abnormal state of Christian 
life; but with that degree of pure life 
which a soul recovers when first it finds 
Christ. Life in Jesus is analogical to the 
life of Jesus in the flesh, while "the more 
abundant life" is analogous to the resur- 
rection life of Christ after His crucifix- 
ion. Throughout Jesus' ministry to His 
disciples He kept them in mind of the 
"glory that was to follow His suffer- 
ings." John, whom we have seen, faith- 

84 



The Change. 

fully registers their new birth of God 
while Jesus was with them, nevertheless 
declares that they had not as yet received 
the overflowing river fulness of the 
Spirit, because Christ was not yet glori- 
fied (John viii: 37-39). Paul, in his 
Epistle to the Philippians, states that the 
object of his entire consecration, and the 
purpose in mind in his being made con- 
formable unto the death of Christ, was, 
with other things, that he might know 
(or experience) "the power of His resur- 
rection." And in the sixth of Romans 
he incites true Christians to a resurrec- 
tion type of life according to the same 
power or glory of the Father, whereby 
Christ was raised from the dead. 

All of these and similar Scriptures pre- 
sume not only the resurrection of our 
Lord as the type and power of this more 
abundant life; but also a death on our 
part comformable to or in some sense 
like His death upon the cross. Hence we 
submit first amongst the marks of "the 
more abundant life" (1) an antecedent 
and unmistakable experience of cruci- 
fixion to self, and this is followed by such 
further marks as (2) the sure experience 
of perfect love. Love for God is now all- 
absorbing. Love for man is all-inclusive. 
Notwithstanding the enmities and per- 

85 



From Glory To Glory. 

secutions of men, the loving desire for 
the salvation of souls has become a pas- 
sion fixed and controlling, and it too is 
perfected in that it intensely yearns for 
the sanctification of believers as well as 
for the conversion of sinners. And this 
more abundant love is found as an ex- 
perience of the soul, including all loving 
dispositions and excluding all malevo- 
lent and indifferent tempers. It dictates 
the actions and directs the attitudes. It 
orders the words and modulates the 
tones. In fact, it not only regulates the 
whole life, but it spends and even sacri- 
fices the life for the service of its beloved. 

A third mark of the more abundant life 
is a complete adaptation to the varying 
environments of the present life. So that 
abiding contentment, persistent patience, 
unwavering thanksgiving and a prompt 
and energetic improvement of the op- 
portunities of life characterize the man 
who is filled with the Christ life. He is 
a perfect fit to Providence. 

But beyond this, and beyond the pro- 
gressive enlargements, developments, 
manifestations and achievements of this 
more abundant life, there is yet the 

"crown of life/' 

which awaits us at the coming of the 

86 



The Change. 

Lord our life. This is contingent upon 
life-Ions: fidelity: "Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life." It may be understood as consist- 
ing in three things, (i) the end of life's 
probation and life itself made absolute 
and beyond any contingency; (2) life in- 
vested with an equipment and an arena 
of life in a body resurrected unto eternal 
life and a surrounding divested of all 
that pertains to death and decay; (3) life 
entrusted and empowered with a throne 
and a sceptre to reign in a manner and in 
a realm not yet fully revealed. 

It remains for us to remind the reader 
that there are four great underlying prin- 
ciples or factors of life in Jesus. 

The Blood. — As we have quoted, "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in 
you." 

The Word. — "The words that I speak 
unto you, they are spirit and they are 
life/' 

The Spirit. — "The Spirit quickeneth." 
"The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of 
sin and death." And 

Faith.— "We live by faith." 

Oh, dear reader, are you alive in Christ 
87 



From Glory To Glory. 

Jesus? If so, do you realize the outflow- 
ing of the rivers of living water? If not, 
tarry right here, until you have your 
Pentecost! This will be at once to you 
the seal of your present life in Him and 
the earnest of the crown of life which is 
held out beyond. Be filled with the life 
of Christ! 



88 



CHAPTER IV. 
$l)e (SMarg of HigtjtcousiusB. 

Physical power may be the rightful 
glory of a brute. Knowledge might have 
been honor sufficient for a man, if intel- 
lect were his highest property. But to 
a moral being capable of right or wrong, 
able to know good or evil, made in the 
image of God, but capacitated to acquire 
the likeness or nature of demons, there 
is no glory commensurate save the glory 
of righteousness. 

Man's sin is man's shame. Man's de- 
liverance from sin is man's honor. But 
righteousness is not only that negative 
thing of sinlessness; it is something posi- 
tive, even a force which conquers its op- 
posite and disseminates its like. The 
righteousness of the law was simply of 
these two sorts — an outward negativing 
of the commonly accepted forms of 
wrong, and an active engagement in the 
services of religion. It came in a very 

89 



From Glory To Glory. 

just sense to be called, by Paul, "Mine 
own righteousness ;" for it was self-cen- 
tered and self-produced, and besides it 
invested self with an ostentatiousness in 
things ceremonial, and with a self-com- 
placency in things moral. There are 
those still who "go about to establish 
their own righteousness/' and who are 
either ignorant of or do not submit them- 
selves to the righteousness of Christ. 
These are the natural religionists and 
humanitarians on the one hand, and the 
Jew-Christians or legalists and ritualists 
upon the other. Unitarianism, in and 
out of the Church, and professing Chris- 
tians, who nevertheless look to their own 
works to save them in whole or in part. 
The requirement and the standard of 
personal righteousness is enforced by 
Christ in words like these: "Except your 
righteousness shall exceed the righteous- 
ness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
in no case enter the kingdom of heaven" 
(Matt, v: 20). This excess of righteous- 
ness proposed and provided under the 
Gospel is both external and internal. 
External in that divine laws, which had 
been supplanted by their traditions, are 
restored to their due place, and minor 
matters, which by undue magnification 
had nullified the major, are justly subordi- 

90 



The Change. 

nated; and further, in that outward right- 
eousness is extended beyond the bounds 
of negative prohibition of wrong to the 
broad plain of positive injunction to do 
good. Internal in that the dead men's 
bones are ejected from the sepulchre, 
which had been whitened without. 
Righteousness in act becomes only an 
evidence of righteousness in fact. Un- 
holy desires and passions are not only 
curbed in gratification, but expunged 
from being. "The King's daughter is 
all glorious within," and not only 
adorned with chaste and costly trappings 
without. Perfect, pure, personal right- 
eousness is the soul's moral glory in 
Christ. 

Righteousness is thus a term which 
frenuently includes holiness of heart, as 
w as Tightness of ways. It also, on 

j other hand, is sometimes a specific 
term representing our judicial standing 
before God. It is important to observe 
this. Paradoxes are explained hereby. 
One may have "the witness that he is 
(judicially) righteous," and yet "hope for 
the righteousness which is by faith." He 
may know "the blessedness of the man 
unto whom the Lord doth not impute 
unrighteousness," and yet he may ar- 
dently seek that he may be found in Him 

91 ' 



From Glory To Glory. 



sk * sk "1 



having the righteousness which 
is through the faith of Christ, ,, etc. 

For this righteousness is twofold. 
Two* prepositions in Romans iii: 21, ex- 
press this: "Even the righteousness of 
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ 
unto all and upon all them that believe/' 
Righteousness "upon" stands for what 
we mean by imputed righteousness; 
righteousness "unto" for what we ex- 
perience as imparted righteousness. 
Both are right. Neither should be 
pressed to the seeming disadvantage of 
the other. There is no impartation aside 
first from an imputation, but an imputa- 
tion without an impartation is a delusion. 
And the idea of an absolute and an in- 
violable or non-forfeitable imputation, 
without reference to the perfect and per- 
petual participation of the righteousness 
of Christ is a snare against which Paul 
faithfully guards us in the sixth of Rom- 
ans. When a poor wayfarer accepted 
the highway invitation, and came with 
the other guests to the wedding feast, 
he, with they, good and bad, received the 
righteousness of Christ imputed unto 
him. But when he despised the wedding 
garment (made of fine linen, which John 
tells us is the righteousness of the saints), 
he at once imperilled, and at length lost, 

92 



The Change. 

his "standing" and was cast out forever. 
Our righteous standing and our right- 
eous state are both provided in Jesus' 
Blood. Bless His Name! 

Let every man know "the truth as it 
is in Jesus" concerning the glorious 
righteousness which is ours in Him. To 
do this the better, let us remember that 
the shame of sin is threefold; it is the 
shame of guilt, the shame of defilement, 
and the shame of impotency — a convict, 
a leper, a paralytic. How glorious, then, 
the truth of righteousness in Jesus! for it 
is pardon, purity and power, adjustment 
to God's righteous law, conformation to 
God's righteous character, enablement 
for life's righteous obligations. "Your 
sins and your iniquities will I remember 
no more." That is justification." From 
all your filthiness and from all your 
idols, will I cleanse you." That is 
sanctification. "I will put my Spirit 
within you and cause you to walk in my 
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments 
and do them." That is power unto 
righteousness. Altogether, it is man 
made a success in righteousness. Glory! 

Perhaps the reader is most of all in- 
terested in that aspect of righteousness 
which we have seen is represented by 
the "wedding garment." He ought to 

93 



From Glory To Glory. 

be, if he has accepted the invitation and 
is an accredited guest under the bounty 
of the King. The necessity, the nature, 
the extent and the condition of the right- 
eousness yet held out to him that has 
come under the mercy of a righteous 
Lord, is subject of supreme importance to 
those who would glorify God and enjoy 
Him forever. That such necessity exists 
is evidenced by the mythical inventions 
of purgatorial fires and of future proba- 
tions; by the unwarranted hope many 
Christians indulge of a further moral 
change to be wrought by death; by their 
irrational and unscriptural theories con- 
cerning purgative properties of physical 
sufferings and earthly tribulations; and, 
most of all, by the deep longing of the 
soul for a full and free deliverance some- 
where, sometime, somehow, from the 
innate proclivities to unrighteousness, 
which hinder and oppose the principle of 
righteousness which grace has placed 
within them. Isaac, type of a new life, 
child of faith and promise and heir of 
hope, has come indeed to gladden the 
heart and home; but Ishmael, offspring 
of the flesh in corrupt relation, remains 
to crowd and persecute and prevent this 
spiritual Isaac. Something must be 
done is the unanimous verdict of the 

94 



The Change. 

Christian consciousness and of all the in- 
vented theories for the disposal of car- 
nality. 

The imperativeness and greatness of 
this necessity is fully shown by the price 
which one like Paul the apostle puts 
down to secure it: "What things were 
gain to me thos€ I counted loss — yea, 
doubtless I count all things but loss. . . . 
that I may be found in Him not having 
mine own righteousness .... but that 
which is through the faith of Christ." It 
may have been the effort involved, the 
importunity required, the sacrifice en- 
tailed, which induced that man to neglect 
the "wedding garment ;" but none of 
these things prevail upon me, nor upon 
you, my readers, to dissuade us or deter 
us from securing that only sufficient fit- 
ness for the coming of the King! For, 
"without holiness no man shall see the 
Lord!" 

We have already seen that the seat of 
this righteousness is the "inner man," 
"the hidden man of the heart," the foun- 
tain of being out of which flow the issues 
of life, and now we pause a moment 
longer to consider its nature. This may, 
perhaps, be stated as comprising three 
things: (i) freedom from the inbeing of 
sin; (2) permeation with the very essence 

95 



From Glory To Glory. 

of righteousness ; (3) possession of a di- 
vine presence and power sustaining us in 
liberty from sin, and propelling the soul, 
both in the progress and in the spread of 
righteousness. This is the glory of 
righteousness brought to the soul by the 
Lord our righteousness ; it is divestment, 
investment and empowerment of the soul 
unto righteousness. 

Its extent and its endurance may now 
be easily seen. Here is a monumental 
text, in Luke i: 74, 75: 'That He would 
grant unto us, that we being delivered 
out of the hand of our enemies might 
serve Him without fear, in holiness and 
righteousness before Him all the days of 
our lives." The deliverance is total (see 
also v. 71), the spirit of the service is 
perfect ("without fear"), the service itself 
is complete, being both inward and out- 
ward ("in holiness and righteousness"); 
the judgment thereof is infallible ("be- 
fore Him"), and the continuance of it is 
perpetual ("all the days of our life"), 
Truly, this is glorious! Truly, "He is 
able to save to the uttermost them that 
come unto God by Him!" Glory! 

And now the conditions of this right- 
eousness all converge in one focal word 
— faith; so that it is interchangeably 
called the "righteousness of Christ" and 

96 



The Change. 

"righteousness by faith;" and this nulli- 
fies every other boast of man and brings 
him to his own rightful glory. For the 
most glorious of all man's faculties, 
powers and possibilities is his capability 
of believing. It is here he becomes al- 
most divine, "for all things are possible 
to him that believeth." Man's shame 
has all come through unbelief, and like- 
wise all his sorrow and all man's honor 
and his joy come through faith. In the 
natural state, faith is dethroned, reason 
perverted and sense exalted, but under 
grace faith sways the sceptre of being, 
reason is prince over a realm rightfully 
his own, and holds sense as his servant. 
True, we have seen Paul setting the 
precedent of a complete world-renuncia- 
tion and self-abnegation to obtain this 
prize; true, we have heard the Saviour 
saying that without importunity such 
treasures may not be found; but these 
are only making way for faith. Our 
consecration, or more correctly, our cru- 
cifixion, is no end in itself, it is rather 
that "we may prove what is that good 
and acceptable and perfect will of God." 
And this proof is made by faith, faith that 
His blood includes our sanctification, as 
well as our justification, faith that His 
Spirit stands ready to "cut it short in 

97 



From Glory To Glory. 

righteousness," faith that He doeth it, 
and an habitual faith that He, abides to 
perpetuate and promote all righteous- 
ness within and through us. O, be- 
loved, have you in this sense beheld the 
Lord your righteousness? Behold Him 
now as in a glass, and beholding with a 
steady, unwavering faith, submit to be 
changed into the same image by the 
Spirit of the Lord ! 



98 



CHAPTER V. 
Sl)e @lorg of Saaifur. 

It was the holy ambition of Paul that 
"he might fill up that which was behind 
of the afflictions of Christ in the flesh 
for His body's sake, which is the Church'' 
(see Colossians i: 24). "That he might 
know the fellowship of His sufferings" 
(Philippians iii: 10) was a leading motive, 
w T hich constrained him in a life of utter 
deadness to the world. And that he 
realized his heart's desire in this is evi- 
dent from his language in II Corinth- 
ians iv: 10, 11, where, describing his 
daily life, he says: "Always bearing 
about in the body the dying of the Lord 
Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be 
made manifest in our body ; for we which 
live are always delivered unto death for 
Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus 
might be made manifest in our mortal 
flesh." These all may seem strange say- 
ings to us, but they tend to emphasize 
and explain Jesus' words where He said: 
"Every one that is perfect shall be as his 

99 



From Glory To Glory. 

Master" (Luke vi: 40). Or, where He 
said unto some of His more ambitious 
disciples, that "they should indeed be 
baptized with the baptism that He was 
baptized with." They serve also to en- 
hance our understanding of that most 
wonderful saying of one of the apostles, 
that "as He is so are we in this world" 
(I John iv: 17), and the words of the 
Saviour Himself, where He declared to 
the Father: "As Thou hast sent Me into 
the world even so have I also sent them 
into the world" (John xvii: 18). The 
most glorious of all earthly relationships 
or offices is that to which the disciple is 
called, of being related to the world as 
the Lord Himself was related to it. 

We have already seen that the crown- 
ing glory of the Lord was in the outgo- 
ing and the outgiving to usward of His 
nature of righteousness and love, and 
that this glory reached its zenith on 
Calvary. We are to see now that even 
this glory He shares with His people, 
and that we too are called to "bear in 
our body the marks of the Lord Jesus," 
even as did the great Apostle Paul. The 
glory of an enlisting soldier is great, but 
that of a battle-scarred veteran is greater. 
Ours is to be the glory of the cross. In- 
tuitively men seem to recognize that true 
100 



The Change. 

honor is not in having acquired or at- 
tained what one himself needs, but in 
being a "producer," a "provider/' a ben- 
efactor for the sake of others. I am not 
surprised when scientists tell me that 
Nature shows in almost every realm 
some illustrations of vicarious interven- 
tion and some things analogous to the 
atonement; for it has evidently been 
God's design that the world about us and 
the constitution of the human mind and 
race should furnish both pictures and 
shadowed outlines of all this glory which 
was to be brought to light in the face of 
Christ Jesus, through the Gospel. Vi- 
carious service and vicarious suffering 
are included in the heritage of glory that 
awaits the true disciple of his Lord. 

Man has not yet reached his chief end, 
nor fulfilled the glory of God, when he 
himself alone is saved by the vicarious 
sacrifice of Jesus. No, not until others are 
being saved through the vicarious sacri- 
fice of himself. Neither personal life nor 
righteousness nor holiness can meet all 
the requirements of our being or supply 
all the demands the world may justly 
make upon us. These can only be met by 
the sacrifice of ourselves for others, even 
as Jesus gave Himself for the world. To 
get us to heaven, nor even to fit us for 
101 



From Glory To Glory. 

heaven, is not the final object of Christ's 
grace in us, but to- get others to heaven 
by us is what our Lord saves us and 
keeps us in the world for. And this end 
requires not merely sentiment, nor even 
service only; it demands sacrifice; for the 
ministration of salvation even also as the 
purchase of redemption was by the way 
of the cross. 

The cross, whether as the cost of salva- 
tion or as the condition of obtaining it, 
or as the means of propagating it, has 
always been not only a stumbling-block 
to the Jews and foolishness to* the 
Greeks, but likewise a misty maze and 
somewhat of a repugnance to Christians 
who are in an imperfect state. This was 
illustrated in Peter, when, though he had 
had the divinity of Christ revealed unto 
him, and had received great blessing be- 
cause of his testimony hereto, neverthe- 
less in a moment afterward meets with 
severe rebuke because when Christ re- 
ferred to his pending sacrifice on the 
cross he replied: "Be it far from Thee! 
Pity Thyself, Lord!" Ah, beloved, it is 
this shrinking and shirking of the cross, 
both in the presentation of the Gospel 
and in personal Christian life, which robs 
Christianity of its crowning and conquer- 
ing glory so many times. We may seek 
102 



The Change. 

to draw all men unto Christ by a worldly- 
wise "lifting up" of His excellence of 
character, work, etc.; we may hope to 
attract men to the Church and to our- 
selves by an effort to prove that nothing 
is sacrificed but all is gained and im- 
proved in even a worldly and natural 
sense; and we may even imagine that we 
have thus made advance upon the fathers 
in making Christianity attractive, etc.; 
but the fact remains that the "being lifted 
up" of which the Saviour spoke, was 
none other than the lifting up of the 
cross; and the force of the Church to 
win and to save men is only and ever in 
exact proportion to the self-sacrifice of 
believers to that end. 

And this glory of Christian sacrifice 
must be distinguished from that common 
view of "bearing the cross" for Christ, 
which prevails in the minds of many. 
The curbing of natural inclinations to do 
wrong is in no proper sense "the cross 
of Christ," for it had no parallel in the 
life of Jesus, and the glory of sacrifice 
to which we are called is a real participa- 
tion of the pure sufferings of Christ for 
others. Neither, then, is successful bat- 
tling with one's disinclination to do right 
(though it is often, and perhaps properly, 
called "taking up our cross for Him") to 
103 



From Glory To Glory, 

be confounded with bearing the cross of 
Christ, which was not borne by Him 
with any view or necessity of fulfilling 
or perfecting personal righteousness on 
His part, but rather with the view of ac- 
complishing righteousness in and for 
others. And this is the Christian's glory 
of sacrifice, a cross for others rather than 
a cross for himself. 

Yet, in noticing this glory of sacrifice 
from two or three different standpoints, 
we shall have to begin where the atmos- 
phere is not quite so clear, and where 
discrimination between self-interest and 
the redemption of others as the ruling 
motive in the sacrifice is difficult. But 
the factor of an assured and well pro- 
tected state of personal salvation in our- 
selves is so primary, and so potent in the 
necessary qualifications for saving others 
that the two can hardly be divorced. 
Note, then, the sacrifice enjoined by the 
Master when He said: "If thy hand or 
foot or eye offend thee (cause thee to 
stumble) cut it off, pluck it out, cast it 
from thee. It is better to enter into life 
maimed, etc., than to be cast into hell 
fire." 

But the natural mind, and the semi- 
sanctified heart, will spurn this counsel 
and frustrate the meaning of these 
104 



Tlie Change. 

words. Does not the Saviour here plainly 
teach that the sacrifice of some things as 
necessary or as desirable to an ideal life 
in the flesh as a hand or a foot or eye, 
may be required for the self-preservation 
of the soul in spiritual life? Yet men, 
and sometimes ministers, will herald a 
new gospel, and proclaim a perfect sym- 
metry of physical, intellectual and social 
manhood as the acme of human glory 
and the quintessence of Christian perfec- 
tion. Ah, beloved reader, let us remem- 
ber that He whose visage was marred 
more than any man's, in whom we saw 
no comeliness that we should desire 
Him, though He had made man with all 
His faculties, powers and pleasures, and 
though He has provided in the economy 
of redemption for the employment of 
any and all of the legitimate parts of 
human nature, has nevertheless admon- 
ished us that a maimed or deficient 
earthly life may not only not prevent, 
but may, in a given case, be necessary to 
the fulfilment of the glory of this great 
salvation in us. 

This should have a double effect upon 
our minds and hearts. In the first place, 
it should work within us a perfect con- 
tentment with the Providential cross 
which may be in our life. Almost every- 
105 



Fronj Glory To Glory. 

body has such. Few behave well under 
them. You may be tortured with inevit- 
able uncongenialities in your social lives. 
You may be hampered in the pursuit of 
your preferred calling by afflictions in 
your family. You may be hindered in 
the gratification of your intellectual or 
literary cravings by poverty or by de- 
privation of the needed helps and asso- 
ciations. You may be handicapped in 
your efforts to secure a competency by 
the impositions of men, the lack of busi- 
ness faculty, or by obligations of one 
kind and another in behalf of your rela- 
tives or friends. Life may seem a disap- 
pointment to you and a failure. And, in- 
deed, it is so if the enthusiast of hygiene, 
of culture, of sociology, etc., is a true 
apostle of the Gospel of Christ. But he 
is not. Ahead of all these things (and 
neither the hand, nor the eye, nor the 
foot represents anything sinful in itself), 
in importance to you, God esteems the 
salvation and security of your soul. 
Providence cooperates with grace to 
further this great end of your being. Not 
that any suffering or deprivation has any 
merits or can of itself save you; but cer- 
tain susceptibilities of yours, which por- 
tend eternal peril and may provoke final 
disaster to your soul, are taken cogniz- 
106 



The Change. 

ance of by your heavenly Father, though, 
maybe, unsuspected by yourself, and He 
has placed a hedge about you, like you 
would place a guard at the door to pre- 
vent your toddling child from going out 
— and falling down. You, beloved, are 
called to show forth, not the glory of an 
ideal humanity, but the glory of Christ, 
in a defective and deficient humanity. 
Arming yourselves with a mind to suffer, 
you may afford to "glory in tribulations 
also." 

Secondly, this injunction and admoni- 
tion should actuate vis in the choices of 
life to prefer what is most conducive to 
our soul's prosperity, even at the sacri- 
fice of other and very desirable things. 
There is much of that which makes up 
our lives, which is still left to our own 
freedom of choice. While we have just 
noticed the inevitable in our circum- 
stances and conditions, that which can- 
not by any lawful means of ours be 
changed by ourselves, we want also to 
remember that God has made each of us 
the most active and responsible agent in 
selecting and shaping the course of our 
own lives. The superstitious may decree 
that love is beyond our own volition, and 
imagine matches are made in heaven. 
The godless may regard business as a 
1-7 



From Glory To Glory. 

game of chance anc worship the idol of 
luck. The pessimists may deify disaster 
and put calamity in the place of Christ. 
But the enlightened Christian must see 
that there are few of the great concerns 
of life, into which he enters, but are, 
after all, determined by his own choice, 
consent or concurrence. This glory of 
manhood is once more restored to us in 
Christ Jesus. He makes us free. And 
the entanglements, relations, surround- 
ings and occupations of life should all be 
chosen or accepted with a view to their 
bearing upon the spiritual life. Few 
consider this. If they do, it is with a 
sort of assumption that the soul is sub- 
ordinate, and that the "bread and butter 
question" must be considered first, or 
that intellectual, social and financial ad- 
vantages are so important for the sake 
of our influence and usefulness that the 
spiritual may, for the time, be subordi- 
nated. Indeed, the notion seems to pre- 
vail that spirituality is automatic, and 
self-defensive, as well as independent in 
its progression and reproduction, where- 
as it is, of all things, most sensitive to 
neglect, and most needful of a hearty, 
healthy cooperation of the human with 
the divine. 

Oh, if I might but persuade some 
108 



The Change. 

reader, who is now at one of those cru- 
cial junctures of life, with pleasure, profit 
or personal advantage in many (lawful) 
ways inciting you on this side, and spirit- 
ual security and strength and separate- 
ness for service perhaps soliciting you 
to this, a more lonely way, to just stop 
long enough to recall the crisis in Lot's 
life, where, subordinating religion, he 
chose the riches of Sodom, while Abra- 
ham decided on godliness and what was 
left, and then remember the sequel! Be 
it a right hand or foot or even an eye, 
my dear sister, brother, let it go — not 
merely to seek, but likewise to secure 
and sustain, salvation! 



109 



CHAPTER VI. 

&t)e ®!orj3 of Sarnftce. 

(Continued.) 

The next stage in the glory of sacrifice 
is in the joyful acceptance of those try- 
ing and crucifying things which happen 
unto us "for the furtherance of the 
Gospel." This class of things was an- 
ticipated by the Lord for us when He 
foretold that some should be brought be- 
fore rulers and otherwise persecuted, and 
added: "It shall turn unto you for a 
testimony." It is of this kind of tempta- 
tions preeminently that reference is to 
be understood when we are told to 
"count it all joy when we fall into divers 
temptations;" or when it is said, "If 
when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take 
it patiently, this is thankworthy to God." 
Paul instances in his own experience 
how that privations, sufferings, abuses, 
imprisonments, etc., entailed by reason 
of his identification with Christ, or his 
testimony and work for Him, had actu- 
ally turned to the preaching of the 
110 



The Change. 

Gospel in places where it could not have 
otherwise been heard; and he was not 
only content but joyful. 

We should, perhaps, be slow in ascrib- 
ing every slight or injury or set-down we 
may receive, either at the hands of the 
world or of those in ecclesiastical power, 
to the spirit of persecution; even if we 
are "all out for God," and for righteous- 
ness, for such imputation may either fail 
to do justice to the motives of others, or 
to recognize other things, possibly in 
ourselves besides holiness, which may 
occasion some such treatment; neverthe- 
less that the persecuting spirit is as 
surely fixed in the carnal mind to-day as 
it was in the times of Cain and of Ish- 
mael, and of the murderers of Stephen, 
and of those who crucified our Lord, 
there is not the least doubt. Moreover, 
the permissive Providence and the over- 
ruling purposes of grace in the persecu- 
tion of saints are the same to-day as they 
have 'ever been, and the glory of the 
Church, nor of any Christian, is not 
complete without that effulgent shining 
of the love of Christ before men's eyes, 
which is manifest in contrast with the 
dark background of persecution which is 
used to project the same to view. It 
should, perhaps, be esteemed the shame 
111 



From Glory To Glory. 

rather than the boast of modern Chris- 
tianity that it encounters so few persecu- 
tions, and it is the greater shame of many 
Christians that they stifle the spirit's im- 
pulses, stunt their own progress, and 
sacrifice opportunities and obligations of 
righteousness and of evangelization in 
their shrinking and shunning of the per- 
secutions involved. Could we but know 
it, the world's imposed "crown of thorns" 
wall invest the wearer with the glory of 
his Lord here and entitle him to share 
His crown hereafter, "for, if we suffer 
with Him, we shall also reign together; 
but if we deny Him, He will also deny 
us." 

The great apostle gives, in II Corinth- 
ians iv: 7-18, a most graphic description 
of this Christian glory of persecution, 
especially in vs. 10 and 11, where he 
describes himself as "always bearing 
about in the body the dying of Jesus 
that the life also of Jesus might be mani- 
fest in our body; for we which live are 
always delivered unto death for Jesus' 
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be 
manifest in our mortal flesh." Carefully 
mark his language here. This which he 
mentions as the dying of the Lord 
Jesus he had previously explained as 
"being troubled," "persecuted," "cast 
112 



The Change. 

down," etc. And what is it he says of 
the design and effect of these crucifying 
experiences? Not that they were needed 
for his own salvation, nor meant for his 
own sanctification. By no means! But 
rather that the life of Jesus already pos- 
sessed in his soul might be made mani- 
fest. It is the manifestation of Christ's 
life and love and nature, rather than the 
mortification of our own carnal nature 
(which is accomplished by other means, 
thank God!) that is to be effected 
through the glory of the cross repro- 
duced in us. And in this manner there 
is even a vicariousness about the Chris- 
tian cross, for he goes on to say: "So 
then death worketh in us, but life in you" 
(v. 12). And, further, "All things (these 
things of the apostles' sufferings) are for 
your sakes that the abundant grace 
might, through the thanksgiving of 
many, redound to the glory of God" (v. 
15). When the Christian comes to know 
that his sufferings for Christ's sake — that 
is, his afflictions, losses, deprivations, dis- 
comforts, persecutions — because of his 
love of Christ and righteousness, are not 
only permitted as tests of his loyalty and 
as a discipline to His graces, but to fur- 
nish occasion for a manifestation of the 
life of Christ that others may see Jesus 
113 



From Glory To Glory. 

in him, and be saved or inspired, then 
will he come more fully than ever before 
to glory in the cross of Christ, and to see 
that even his "dyings daily" thus may be 
miniature reproductions oi Calvary, with 
power to save instrumentally even as 
that did meritoriously. 

And thus, in the next place, the Chris- 
tian's glory of sacrifice is in the voluntary 
giving up of himself for the service of 
Christ and the salvation of men. This 
means even more than the dedication of 
talents to Christian scholarship or to the 
Christian ministry. It is both more ex- 
tensive and more intensive than these, 
for it is a privilege extended to all be- 
lievers, and not only to the regular min- 
istry. And it is a devotement embracing 
not only talents and powers, but involv- 
ing the sacrifice of time, ease, pleasure, 
property, friends, prospects, health, and 
even life itself, for the accomplishment 
of men's salvation. As the life, or even 
the ministry, of Christ alone would not 
have sufficed to have saved the world 
without His sacrifice, so, neither, can a 
well-equipped Christian service without 
the self-sacrifice of the servants them- 
selves avail to the evangelization of the 
world. Right here, we think, is the im- 
potency of much modern Christianity. 
114 



The Change. 

We doubt indeed whether, generally 
speaking, the Church at large ever ex- 
hibited a higher type of morality than 
to-day, or whether it ever commanded 
a more learned or better furnished min- 
istry and laity than now, but the spirit of 
martyrdom is lacking. "All men seek 
their own." A refined, and often even a 
gross selfishness, if it does not animate, 
at least affects much Christian work. 
Ah, beloved, it takes a dead man to 
make a living preacher. Never, until 
our gain and our gratification are all 
held subordinate, subservient, and sacri- 
ficial to the salvation of others, can we 
fulfill the "glory of His grace" by bring- 
ing others into the same image from 
glory to glory. 

It is, of course, well known and gen- 
erally admitted that the sacrifice and per- 
secution involved in carrying the Gospel 
to new fields is greater than that in 
preaching to Christian communities. 
Hence the glory of the missionaries' 
heroism. But it is also to be known 
that a like heroism is needed to carry the 
Church to higher spiritual planes in what 
we thus call Christian lands. As Paul 
suffered special hardships at the hands 
of Judaizing teachers, who persecuted 
him by seeking to discredit his apostle- 
115 



From Glory To Glory. 

ship and representing him as the enemy 
of the Church he loved, etc., because of 
his efforts to minister to them the liberty 
of the Spirit and to incite them to seek 
perfection by the hearing of faith, even 
so now the servant or handmaiden of the 
Lord, who would lead the Lord's people 
into all the fulness of His love, must ex- 
pect peculiar persecutions and be ready 
to make extraordinary sacrifices to ac- 
complish the same. These may come in 
the forfeiture of position, in assaults upon 
social or ministerial standing, in un- 
usual restrictions and regulations, or in 
extraordinary demands upon time and 
strength and money, and domestic com- 
fort and the like. But let him not be 
ashamed. Let him rather glory in this 
behalf! Let him know that his cross is 
to bring the crown to many! "Foras- 
much then as Christ hath suffered for us 
in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with 
the same mind," 



lid 



CHAPTER VII. 
Stye (Slovp of (Srotutl). 

Regeneration has brought us into the 
glory of life, even a life divine in right- 
eousness and in love. Sanctification, by 
removing the hindrances to life and ush- 
ering us into union with God, has ad- 
vanced us to the glory of holiness or the 
life more abundant. Fellowship with 
Christ's sufferings in sacrifices for the 
salvation of souls exalts us to the glory 
of the cross, even to the high honor of 
participation in the Saviour's joys of 
redemption. These are, in some meas- 
ure, successive and interdependent: It 
is certain that we can know nothing of 
the second without having before ex- 
perienced the first; and our knowledge 
of the third, at least in purity and perfec- 
tion, is a result or sequence of our ex- 
perience in the second. 

Yet w r e come now to notice that in 
each of these, in life, in holiness and in 
sacrifice, there are countless and ever 
succeeding degrees of progression, Our 

117 



From Glory To Glory. 

epochal experiences in conversion, in 
sanctification or in special enduements, 
with power for service, do neither exhaust 
the riches of glory nor militate against 
continuous progress in the spiritual life; 
but, on the other hand, they establish 
the precedent and illustrate the law by 
which that progress is to be continued. 
We say these epochal experiences, these 
sharply defined transformations from 
glory to glory, establish the precedent 
and illustrate the law of spiritual ad- 
vancement or of growth in grace. For, 
instead of growth being that insensible, 
undefined, or often undiscoverable thing 
which it is supposed to> be, it is a steady, 
distinct and definite ascent from "faith to 
faith," from "grace to grace/' and from 
"glory to glory.'' And these steps of 
advance are often made by a revelation 
so vivid, a faith so conscious, and a re- 
sult so marked, that it is scarcely to* be 
wondered that some have been misled 
into attaching to these subsequent devel- 
opments a prominence equal to that of 
their justification and their sanctification. 
Yet, while they are quite analogous, and 
are under the same general law of spirit- 
ual change, yet they are different in that 
the great epochal saving blessings have 
a negative or destructive side in trans- 
118 



The Change. 

lating us from darkness to sunlight, 
while these are all more strictly on the 
positive side, not changing us from sin 
and shame to righteousness and glory, 
but promoting us from one degree, which 
is already glorious and righteous, to an- 
other, which is greater in measure of 
both righteousness and light. 

Instead, then, of looking to the in- 
sensible and uncertain growth of many 
to find the law for either the conversion 
or the sanctification of anv, and thus 
dissuading them from the expectancy of 
epochal transformation, we ought to do 
just the reverse; and upon leading souls 
out into the clear light of either pardon 
or purity, assure them that while these 
are the cardinal blessings, ushering them 
into the leading states of life and holi- 
ness, they are, nevertheless, but samples 
so far as the operation is concerned, of 
the succeeding blessings they may ex- 
pect in advancement from glory to glory. 
The insensible and the undefined should 
be regarded as the exception, rather than 
the rule, in either case. 

As there is no conflict between an 
epochal conversion, which brings life to 
the soul, and an everlasting expansion 
and development of that life, so there is 
no conflict between the instantaneous 
119 



From Glory To Glory. 

baptism with the Holy Ghost, which 
effects purity of heart and brings in ful- 
ness of love and the eternal intensifica- 
tion of that purity and increase of the 
measure of that love. Nor is there any 
inconsistency between a divine invest- 
ment or enduement of the believer with 
a gift or with gifts for service and a 
life-long stirring up of the same, or 
an earnest coveting of other gifts for 
widening service, as enjoined of us in 
Scripture. Far from our wanting to 
prove or to believe that instantaneous 
sanctification abrogates the necessity of 
growth in grace, we insist rather that 
pure and prosperous growth in grace re- 
quires and demands a completed sancti- 
fication. For let it be remembered that 
growth in grace is a multiplication 
("grace, mercy and peace be multiplied 
unto you"), while purification is a sub- 
traction. It is an elimination of those 
negative quantities which, like some dec- 
imal factors, diminish rather than in- 
crease our product of multiplication. 
Hence the growth of many whose hearts 
are not fully cleansed is such an unsatis- 
factory quantity. It is not glorious. 
They feel ashamed of it. They are con- 
fused and confounded regarding it. They 
want to learn "a more excellent way" of 
120 



The Change. 

growing in grace. They long for the 
glory of certain and swift progress. 

This is the glory of apprehending that 
for which we are apprehended of Christ 
Jesus. And this great plan or purpose 
of grace concerning us is threefold. It 
embraces all the possibilities of our ex- 
panding being for enjoying God, all the 
opportunities of our advancing life for 
reflecting the righteousness of Christ, 
and all the capabilities of our deepening 
nature for extending this salvation to 
others. And all this as measured from 
the divine side, and as estimated from 
the standpoint of grace rather than from 
human measurement. That is a sad day 
for a man of God when he fixes his 
standard according to what he has al- 
ready attained or done, or according to 
what is expected of him by others 
or according to the average or even 
the exceptional attainments of those 
about him. The lassitude and inertia 
which ensue when one gives up all 
ambition of life but partially illustrate 
the effect upon the spiritual nature 
when one is divested of the great 
hope of reaching something in Christ 
beyond what he has yet attained. The 
fact that there are degrees in the coming 
glory, fixed by our rank of service or 
121 



From Glory To Glory. 

martyrdom here, should impel us to pur- 
sue the extreme possibilities of our call- 
ing. The fact that there are rewards 
awaiting us commensurate with the nat- 
ure and extent of our fidelity should con- 
strain us to seek to be ever at our best. 
That there are peculiar loves of Christ, 
as evidenced in the affection He showed 
for John and for those at the house of 
Lazarus, should incite us with desire to 
be counted worthy of entrance into the 
secret place of His love. Nor is all this 
to be viewed in the light simply of a 
possible exploit or adventure of the aspir- 
ing Christian, nor in any sense as a 
supererogation, but rather it is the seek- 
ing to apprehend that for which we are 
apprehended of Christ Jesus. 

The Lord has plans concerning each 
one of us. These are not fixed so arbi- 
trary but that some other man may take 
our crown. They are not decreed so 
absolutely but that their execution still 
hinges upon the ardent aspiration of our 
own hearts and the cooperation of our 
own wills. Yet they are as truly planned 
and purposed as were ever any fond de- 
signs of a loving father for the future of 
his boy. Infinitely more so. And it is dis- 
tressing to meet so many, even amongst 
Christians, who are going through life 
122 



Tlie Change. 

with a sense of not meeting or fulfilling 
their calling, and this is true both with 
respect to life's work and with regard to 
the possibilities of grace within them- 
selves. 

It is truly refreshing to find that Paul 
succeeded in this apprehension of that 
for which he was apprehended of Christ 
Jesus; for this is what he affirms: "I have 
finished my course/' This was much 
more than a mere reference to the nat- 
ural course of life which all must finish 
in some way. It implied the accomplish- 
ment of the great purpose of his life, 
which was to carry out God's designs 
concerning him. And in this, too, he 
was like his Lord, who said: "I have 
finished the work which Thou gavest 
Me to do." 

' aus we see that the notion of an un- 
r- ained and an unattainable ideal is not 
the Gospel thought of the Christian's 
growth in grace exactly, but it is rather 
this that the infinite designs concerning 
the faithful soul are revealed to it by suc- 
cessive stages, that each of these in order 
is successfully apprehended (seized) by 
faith, and that this then becomes the 
qualification for the next, and thus life's 
course is completed without regrets, re- 
morse or failure. And we repeat that 
123 



From Glory To Glory. 

the heart-exercise and process of faith in 
each of these upward steps is very sim- 
ilar to what is expressed at the great 
cardinal epochs of justification and sanc- 
tification. Only that the state of purity 
and the habit of faith render these steps 
normal and comparatively easy. And 
by these the man of God finds himself 
constantly changed from his former self, 
even his former spiritual self, "into the 
same image from glory to glory by the 
Spirit of the Lord." 

It will be impossible to outline the 
boundaries of this glorious progress. We 
can only suggest a direction or two in 
which advance may be steadily made. 
Pausing a moment, however, to remind 
the reader again that all this progress is 
on the glory side. The need of advance- 
ment argues no present defilement, and 
the fact of mighty and marked progress 
over what we were or what we did 
yesterday is no evidence that that was 
sinful or that it was unacceptable to the 
Lord. The glory of yesterday repre- 
sented our full measure of capacity then. 
And the greater capacity of to-day points 
to a greater glory which is now within 
our reach. 

In the realm of spiritual life there are 
unnumbered and indescribable degrees 
124 



The Change. 

of advancement to be made in knowl- 
edge, in courage, in prayer, in persua- 
siveness, in meekness, in patience and in 
the every-day, every-way reflection about 
us of the life that is within us. 

In holiness there are establishments, 
intensifications, both of the earnestness 
of our consecration and the ardor of our 
love, and increased wisdom, too, in our 
testimony and in our ways and means of 
spreading the truth, and an ever growing 
force in impressing holiness upon others, 
together with a constant replenishing of 
our own being with fresh supplies of the 
Spirit of Christ. 

Then, in the way of the cross, there 
are ever widening and deepening con- 
ceptions of humanity's needs, an inflamed 
passion for man's salvation, improve- 
ment, development, and increase of gifts, 
and multiplied powers for the furtherance 
of the Gospel, a possible enrichment of 
our lives, too, with greater treasures in 
various ways, and with broadening op- 
portunities, but withal a growing facility 
in the greatest of all arts — the art of self- 
denial — and an increasing skill in the 
laying out of our lives to the greatest 
possible advantage for the glory of God. 

Yet in all this, blessed be God! we are 
not the architects devising and executing 

]25 



From Glory To Glory. 

plans of our own invention, but under 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit we are 
but day-workmen carrying out and ful- 
filling His own plans concerning us. A 
steadfast beholding of the glory of the 
Lord sustains us in such position and re- 
lation to the divine that the Spirit of the 
Lord changes us into the same image 
from " glory to glory." 



126 



PART III. 

®t\t Spirit 



127 



CHAPTER I. 
©Ijinga of tl)e Spirit 

(Even as by the Spirit of the Lord.) 

This greatest of all works, the trans- 
formation of man into the image of God, 
is accredited to the Spirit of the Lord. 
And this we may remark is the crowning 
work of the Spirit. He, too has been 
active in Creation, and in Providence, 
and He has been chief in Inspiration and 
in Revelation; but the most glorious of 
all His works is that of making saints of 
sinners. The supernatural in Christian- 
ity is its essential element. And all the 
glory of human and natural agencies, 
which God employs, is in the channels 
opened and the instruments tendered for 
the use of the Holy Ghost for His divine 
operation in and amongst men. But a 
treatise on the Office Work of the Spirit 
might fill many volumes, and we have 
but a few pages. So we can only hope 
to indicate the general course and sug- 
gest a few particulars of His gracious 
operations in transforming men. 
129 



From Glory To Glory. 

And at the outset we would amplify 
and emphasize what we have just said, 
that all our activities and energies are 
effectual to our own salvation and that of 
others only so far as they are subservient 
(not only subordinate but subservient) 
to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, indeed, 
passivity is more conducive to His work 
than activity, and it behooves us to* ac- 
quire skill in discerning when this is the 
case; but it is enough for us now to be 
reminded that the Holy Ghost does work 
by means, and that our highest ambition 
in Christian culture and in Christian 
work should be to acquire and distribute 
means, whereby the Holy Spirit may be 
aided in either of the following stages of 
His work. We notice : 



THE STRIVINGS OF THE SPIRIT. 

These, like the universal provisions of 
the atonement, are, in some sense and 
measure, w r orld-wide. They are, doubt- 
less, granted to all men, yet not at all 
times, nor in equal degree. They are 
felt in that mighty pull which a heart is 
apt at some time to feel towards the 
right, that inward drawing towards 
things religious, that solicitation to re- 
X30 



The Spirit. 

flection, that voice which almost haunts 
one about its evil and which seeks to 
gain its attention to things serious and 
eternal. We speak of them as strivings, 
for the issue is in every case with the 
will, the will that is held by passion, by 
prejudice, by habit, by association and 
by that strange fascination of sin which 
none can describe but all have felt. Con- 
version (or even conviction) is impossi- 
ble till the will has yielded to these striv- 
ings and become the w T illing captive of 
the Holy Ghost. There are certain con- 
ditions of God's people, both individually 
and collectively, and certain activities of 
prayer, preaching, persuasion, etc.^vhich 
are much more conducive to the striv- 
ings of the Spirit than others. And 
while these strivings are to be sharply 
distinguished from our own urgings and 
solicitations in themselves, yet how care- 
ful we should be that all our demeanor 
and all our approaches should be calcu- 
lated to bring men under this influence 
divine! And it is an awful thing to con- 
template that "His Spirit will not always 
strive with man." There is not only a 
limit to the duration of the world's pro- 
bation, but there is likewise a period at 
w r hich the Spirit gives the individual man 
over to himself. 

131 



From Glory To Glory. 
II. 

THE ILLUMINATION OF THE SPIRIT. 

It is written : "Awake thou that 
sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light/' 
So when a soul, yielding itself to the 
Spirit's strivings, stirs itself to seek and 
to attend to the things of Christ, the 
Spirit of Revelation begins to open the 
truth and unfold the way of life. This 
may be by direct illumination or by the 
means of various ministries. It is usually 
by both. But it is surely divine. Rev- 
elation is at first very apt to be a dis- 
closure of self, showing the wretchedness 
and helplessness of the man to himself, 
and causing him to cry out: "I am a sin- 
ful man, O God!" Then, in due order, 
Christ is revealed as the propitiation for 
his sin and as the present Saviour of his 
soul. And thus is fulfilled again what 
Paul experienced when he said: "God 
which commanded the light to shine out 
of darkness hath shined in our hearts to 
give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus." 
Nor does this work cease here. This is 
but the dawning of the day. This same 
Spirit of Light will abide to lead on to 
that fuller knowledge (called by Paul 
"the excellency of the knowledge of 
132 



The Spirit. 

Christ , ') whereby His fulness is entered 
and His perfect love enjoyed. And 
beyond that He remains as the Spirit of 
Wisdom and Revelation of Him to guide 
us into all truth. 

III. 

THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT. 

A necessity of every man. An ex- 
perience of every true Christian. Too 
much importance cannot be attached 
hereto, nor too great emphasis laid upon 
it. Not that it is the consummation of 
glory; for as Christ's subsequent anoint- 
ing, and then His resurrection by the 
power of the Spirit, followed His super- 
natural birth, so succeeding glories in 
this life and beyond await the soul that 
is truly born of God. Nevertheless, there 
is no commencement of these glories 
until they are begun by the regenerating 
grace of the Spirit. For, though the 
Saviour did not exactly identify the new 
birth with the kingdom of God, He did 
predicate of it the capacity and the quali- 
fication for that kingdom when He said : 
"Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see . . . and again, he cannot enter the 
kingdom of God." And this applies to 
this hemisphere of the kingdom as well 
as the next. 

133 



From Glory To Glory. 

In the new birth the Holy Spirit be- 
gets within us a new principle and power 
of life, and invests us with aptitudes and 
abilities for spiritual existence. Just as 
the natural birth gave us a physical 
vitality and at the same time equipped us 
with instincts, appetites, powers and 
possibilities of existence in the material 
and physical universe, so does the birth 
of the Spirit induct us into* the spiritual 
world. Religion attempted without this 
is artificial and righteousness is counter- 
feit. Truly it is beyond our comprehen- 
sion, as it not only involves the still un- 
solved mystery of life, but as it also em- 
braces the virtue of the life-giving Blood 
and mysterious operation of the life- 
generating Spirit. But it is nevertheless 
known by thousands who, as Jesus said, 
"speak what they do know and testify 
what they have seen." 

IV. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

Like many other things of the Spirit, 
this has been contracted and narrowed 
down to finite limitations of thought. 
The witnessing office w T ork of the Spirit 
is coextensive with the benefits of the 
atonement. It is as comprehensive and 
134 



The Spirit. 

all inclusive as is His work of Revela- 
tion or illumination which we have 
noted. He not only takes of the things 
of Christ and show's them unto us, but 
reproducing them in us, He likewise at- 
tests that fact and the genuineness of the 
result. Every realm of spiritual truth, 
and every range of spiritual blessing is 
to become matter of certitude. Hence 
we read of "the full assurance of faith/' 
and of "the full assurance of hope," and 
of "the full assurance of understanding." 
We all know 7 that "adoption" is subject 
of the Spirit's testimony, but we need 
also to be told that "Divine Union," the 
crowning and most gracious state of the 
believer, is just as explicitly stated to 
be matter of the Spirit's witness (I John 
iii: 24). The Spirit witnessed to individ- 
uals, and sometimes to churches, con- 
cerning the call of men to preach and to 
special work. Pending persecutions 
were in some instances witnessed by the 
Holy Spirit both to the apostles them- 
selves and to others about them. Paul 
speaks of his "conscience bearing him 
witness in the Holy Ghost," showing 
that the range of the Spirit's witnessing 
office includes constant testimony to the 
acceptance of our life and service. 
Thousands of witnesses in this and other 
135 



From Glory To Glory. 

days have told gladly and fearlessly of 
the Spirit's testimony to their sanctifica- 
tion as clear and distinct as it was to 
their justification. Hence we rejoiced to 
affirm in language of Scripture that "we 
have received the Spirit which is of God 
that we might know the things that are 
freely given to us of God." 

None have even been able to either 
define or describe the Spirit's witnessing 
voice. Some may have indeed con- 
founded it with other things, and as- 
sumed that they had the Lord's testi- 
mony to that which He could not ap- 
prove; but despite our inability to com- 
prehend it, and our liability to err here as 
elsewhere, there is nevertheless granted 
to humble, trustful souls a deep, sweet 
assurance, which comes neither from our 
own reasonings nor from our fancies or 
self-congratulations (but often in spite of 
all our fears and in the face of our self- 
distrust), telling us, "'Tis done," or "'Tis 
true." We believe that souls will do well 
to never rest satisfied concerning any 
such momentous question as personal 
justification or sanctification or the call 
to the ministry or any special work, until 
there is vouchsafed to them the direct 
assurance of the voice divine. 



136 



CHAPTER II. 

(Klpiga of tl)e Spirit 

(Continued.) 
"The Sanctification of the Spirit." 

This title is chosen from several that 
might have been adopted to indicate the 
same work in the believer's heart, for the 
reason (i) that it is an exact Scriptural 
expression used by two of the apostles to 
indicate a specific thing; (2) it holds our 
minds to the important thought that 
while there are various self-sanctifica- 
tions of a relative and conditional char- 
acter, there is nevertheless a supreme 
sanctification which the Spirit Himself 
performs within us. Hence the sancti- 
fication of the Spirit deserves our atten- 
tion as one of the great specific opera- 
tions of the Holy Ghost in which we are 
deeply concerned, and as a work much 
higher in its nature than any act of con- 
secration or of self-cleansing of which 
we ourselves are capable. "The sanctifi- 
137 



From Glory To Glory. 

cation without which no man shall see 
the Lord," is as truly a work of the Holy 
Spirit as is trie new birth without which 
a man cannot see the kingdom of God. 

No sooner has the Spirit ushered the 
soul into newness of life than He begins 
to incite it to* something beyond. At 
first, the conception of this "something 
'else" may seem vague and undefined, 
but from the very outset there is a per- 
suasion that it is something definite and 
something not very far off. The young 
convert then begins to yearn and to pray 
for "all the mind of Christ," to* be 
"wholly conformed to God's will," to 
"have nothing in the heart displeasing 
to Jesus." If, perchance, it goes along 
until it encounters some rising of the 
carnal mind, some stirring of anger, or of 
pride, or of impatience, it is very much 
chagrined and cries out for full deliver- 
ance not only from the act, but also from 
the fact of sin. This is conviction for 
sanctification. It is as truly the work of 
the Holy Spirit as the sinner's conviction 
of guilt, and any resistance to His striv- 
ing here is as disastrous to the child of 
God as when the sinner resists those 
earlier strivings of the Holy Spirit. 

But when one yields, he finds his de- 
sires for complete redemption are not 
138 



The Spirit. 

only intensified, but he becomes sensible 
of a Spirit inspired hope that God will 
do it. He begins to recognize a similar- 
ity in his present leadings to those which 
brought him out of darkness in the first 
place. Providential helps begin to come 
to him in the form of literature, preach- 
ing and testimony which confirms his 
own inward conviction. The promises 
of the Bible seem to open to him with a 
remarkable appropriateness to this sub- 
ject and application to his own case He 
undergoes, too, a radical and a rapid ran- 
sacking of his affections, ambitions, and 
of all that belongs to him. He is in- 
wardly constrained to renounce what- 
ever may hinder his progress, and to de- 
vote to God the best and all that he has 
left. Assenting hereto promptly greatly 
accelerates his progress. The Spirit is 
leading him directly through that pro- 
cess we call consecration to that consum- 
mation which is most properly called 
"crucifixion with Christ." At length 
the yielding is complete, having usually 
been delayed in mighty combat at some 
one point on which hinged all the bal- 
ance, and now the Spirit rests the soul 
from its labor and leads it into rest. 

Here He reveals Christ's Blood as the 
ground and cause of sanctification, even 
139 



From Glory To Glory. 

as He previously revealed the same as 
the ground of pardon. He quickens the 
soul's faith to lay hold upon the promise 
of cleansing; and somehow (as mysteri- 
ous to us as when He begat us again to 
the new life), at that moment, He purifies 
the heart by faith. Moreover, He at 
once takes up His abode in His temple 
in a different manner from what He has 
ever occupied it before; and thus, by 
crowning the work of holiness with His 
own holy presence, and abiding to attest 
the fact of cleansing and to sustain the 
fulness of love, He evidences good rea- 
son why this great grace is so properly 
called the Sanctification of the Spirit. 

Before passing this, let us pause to re- 
mark that this work of the Spirit in sanc- 
tifying the human soul is contingent only 
upon the soul's residence in the body 
and upon that soul's hearty compliance 
at the three points of earnest desire, un- 
reserved consecration and implicit faith 
for cleansing. There is not only no pro- 
vision for sanctification out of the body, 
but, on the other hand, it is clearly re- 
vealed that this great salvation is pro- 
vided and bestowed that we may walk 
"in holiness and righteousness all the 
days of our life." And, further, grace is 
granted that "we may be preserved 
140 



The Spirit. 

blameless throughout spirit and soul and 
body until the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." So that while time of itself forms 
no essential factor in our sanctification, 
yet in the very nature of the case there is 
a normal time for its accomplishment. 
This, as we have seen, is in the beginning 
of the Christian life, just as children and 
youths constitute the normal season for 
conversion. To be sure as, like Paul, 
who was as "one born out of due time," 
some are saved in later life, so some are 
sanctified at a later period in their Chris- 
tian experience; but these cases are, as a 
rule, both more difficult and less satis- 
factory than when one "goes up at once 
to possess the land," as soon as the Red 
Sea and Egypt are behind his back. 

As, then, we have seen that the Spirit 
and not time is our sanctifier, so let us 
be reminded that no sufferings of our 
own (except they be the heart-sufferings 
we may experience in the struggle and 
the separation to become fully the Lord's 
as above noted) are either efficient or es- 
sential to bring us into the grace of 
sanctification. The vicarious suffering 
of Jesus has rendered unnecessary any 
sufferings of man for any part of his 
salvation. And the energy of the Holy 
Spirit is the one imperative power de- 
141 



From Glory ^To Gloiy. 

manded to expel sin from the soul. 
Bodily afflictions have no such power, 
even as they have no merits. It is the 
unhesitating testimony of many that 

When I gave my strugglings over, 
Simply trusting, I was blest. 

Yet many are unconsciously dishonor- 
ing the Spirit of their sanctification by 
imagining that either these things can in 
some measure sanctify us or that we 
need them to accomplish this work. No, 
beloved, His chosen and only instrument 
in your sanctification is the truth, and 
no condition of age, of strength, of learn- 
ing, of suffering or of sorrow does He 
exact of you as requisite, but only a 
condition of faith. 

The sanctification of the Spirit is, 
therefore, as purely supernatural, as truly 
divine, as instantaneous, and as surely 
witnessed, as is justification by faith. 



142 



CHAPTER III. 

flyings of ti)e Spirit 

(Continued.) 

There are three other things which at 
least ought to be noticed in this regard, 
though we can but speak suggestively 
upon them each. They are 

VI. The Fulness of the Spirit. 

VII. The Help of the Spirit. 

VIII. The Guidance of the Spirit. 

The first of these is in some measure 
a result of that work of the Spirit noticed 
in the preceding chapter. Yet there is 
need of care here, for there is a fulness of 
the Spirit which does not involve the 
entire sanctification of the soul, a fulness 
that belongs more correctly to the realm 
of gifts than to that of grace, such a ful- 
ness as is sometimes attributed to the 
prophets and as was preeminently illus- 
trated in John the Baptist. These fillings 
are occasional in their character and are 
bestowed with a view to the salvation of 
143 



From Glory To Glory. 

others rather than to the personal salva- 
tion of the one on whom they are be- 
stowed, though properly improved they 
may have gracious reflex effects. Per- 
sons in any and all states of grace have 
enjoyed such fillings, and as the occa- 
sions demanding them are so frequent, it 
is safe to believe we may all experience 
them much oftener than we do if we wait 
before the Lord for such special anoint- 
ings for service. 

But the fulness of the Spirit of which 
we here speak is that "anointing which 
abideth," and by which our whole nature 
is as thoroughly permeated with the 
spiritual as it has been hitherto with the 
carnal. It embraces (i) fulness of the 
light of the Spirit. Not omniscience, 
not infallibility, but a clear sky, open 
eyes and an ever present Teacher to in- 
form and explain; (2) fulness of the fruit 
of the Spirit, the ninefold variety men- 
tioned in Galatians, not in infinite de- 
gree, not either in the largest measure 
capable to any human being, but to the 
full measure of my capacity now; (3) ful- 
ness of the power of the Spirit, not 
omnipotence, not a sort of intangible 
electrical influence overpowering men 
independently of intelligence and aside 
from agency, but an abiding connection 
144 



The Spirit. 

with almightiness, by which we are in- 
vested with a might superhuman accord- 
ing to the demands of the otherwise un- 
even combat against us and the immense 
opportunity before us. This enables us 
to say: "I can do all things through 
Christ which strengthened me;" (4) ful- 
ness of the consolation of the Spirit. 
"The peace of God, which passeth all un- 
derstanding, keepeth the mind and heart 
through Christ Jesus." 

In three words, by the fulness of the 
Spirit, we may understand (1) full aban- 
donment to the Spirit, (2) full possession 
by tbe Spirit and (3) full imbuement with 
the Spirit. And the obligation to "be 
filled with the Spirit" is as imperative as 
the privilege is imminent to us all. 

VII. 

THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT. 

The Comforter not only occupies and 
invests our finite being, he also assists 
our frail and failing faculties and powers. 
He is sometimes referred to as: "One 
called to the side of another for help." 
This help is particularly in the direction 
of spiritual apprehension and endeavor. 
"We know not . . . etc., but the Spirit 
Himself maketh intercession for us." All 
145 



From Glory To Glory. 

of those acts (repentance, faith, conse- 
cration, etc.) which we are accustomed 
and, perhaps, properly to speak of "as 
our own part," etc., nevertheless require 
and receive the helping offices of the 
Holy Spirit or we could not success- 
fully execute them or sustain them. A 
life of momentary faith can not be main- 
tained by mere will-power; but the 
strongest will have need to rely upon the 
help of the Spirit for preservation and 
perseverance. This helpfulness of the 
Spirit, like all his work, is administered 
both directly and through various agen- 
cies. It may be summed up as help in 
apprehension, help in appropriation, help 
in supplication, and help in the propaga- 
tion of like benefits amongst others. 

VIII. 

THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT. 

It hardly satisfies the inquiring mind 
to be told that God guides us by His 
Providence and by His Word; for while 
this is doubtless true, what we really need 
many times is guidance in the under- 
standing and in the choice of provi- 
dences, and in the interpretation and ap- 
plication of the Word; so that we must 
not let the errors and extravagances of 
146 



The Spirit. 

fanatics and of superstitious persons dis- 
suade us from persevering to acquaint 
ourselves with our divine Guide, and to 
familiarize ourselves somewhat with His 
ways of leading the sons of God. 

One text, which may help us greatly 
in this matter, is found in Psalm xxv: 
9, "The meek will He guide in judg- 
ment, and the meek will He teach His 
way." Another, in Psalm xxxii: 8, is 
likewise valuable: "I will instruct thee 
and teach thee in the way in which thou 
shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine 
eye." Both of these show us that guid- 
ance is not meant to displace or to sub- 
stitute our own intelligence, but rather 
to direct it. And since it is into all truth 
that the Saviour says, the Spirit of truth 
will guide us, it is quite evident that our 
higher nature (our intellectual nature in 
the purest sense) is the preferred me- 
dium of the Spirit's guidance. Thus He 
says: "Be not as the horse or as the 
mule, which have to be held in with bit 
and bridle. ... I will instruct thee and 
teach thee/' etc. Guidance is addressed 
to our understanding. We must, there- 
fore, guard against the two extremes of 
either leaning to our own understanding 
independently of guidance, or of imagin- 
ing that ignorance or intellectual sloven- 
147 



From Glory To Glory. 

liness is more conducive to guidance 
than knowledge. Whatever will inform 
and improve the mind, and especially 
whatever will engage it in application to 
"the truth as it is in Jesus" will be found 
most convenient to the Holy Spirit in 
the gracious work of leading us. 

Observe, however, that not the educa- 
tional but the moral and spiritual con- 
ditions of the mind is most important as 
qualifications for our being led of the 
Spirit. "The meek will He guide." To 
be "puffed up" with knowledge, to "be 
wise in our own conceits," to "lean unto 
our own understanding," will unfit us for 
divine guidance. So will undue exalta- 
tion about our "revelation" or the as- 
sumption of an unjustified authority over 
the faith or consciences of others because 
of either our position or what we esteem 
our "leadings." Undue haste in jump- 
ing at conclusions and premature pre- 
cipitancy in the w r ork of the Lord often 
defeat the ends of guidance and deceive 
and discourage souls concerning it. 
Prejudices preclude the light of the 
guiding eye, and so do preferences and 
partialities. Respect for the guidance of 
the Church and of our counsellors may 
degenerate into traditional blindness and 
into such a conferring with flesh and 
148 



The Spirit. 

blood as militates against supernatural 
leading in our thought, our life and our 
work. 

The range of the Spirit's guidance is 
not circumscribed by the boundaries of 
what we commonly call matters of relig- 
ion, for all things secular are made spirit- 
ual and sacred by entire devotement to 
God. So that matters of business, of 
marriage, of location of a home, of edu- 
cation and all things else which con- 
cern us are proper subjects to submit to 
the Holy Spirit for guidance. Yet it 
may be expected that in the intensely 
spiritual issues of life and in the direct 
work of saving souls and building up 
Christ's kingdom, these leadings may be 
more marked and manifest. And, per- 
haps, too, the rule to govern us in claim- 
ing divine guidance in our temporal 
matters is that we be guided in them to 
the best interests of our spiritual welfare 
and work. Health, knowledge, prosper- 
ity, social and climatic conditions, etc., 
are never an end in themselves to the 
Christian, and hence, when the condi- 
tions of guidance have been properly 
met, though the outcome in a given ven- 
ture may seem to be failure to the natural 
mind, the spiritual end may justify the 
confidence that we were nevertheless 
149 



From Glory To Glory. 

divinely led. Yet, upon the other hand, 
we should avoid the great mistake of 
blaming all our mistakes upon the Lord, 
under the assumption that He led us 
thereinto, for we may not only err in 
deciphering God's messages, but many 
have erred in mistaking other things for 
God's telegraphy. While, perhaps, a still 
greater number have gone into many 
things without seeking God's guidance 
until it was time rather for them to need 
guidance out. 

What we have emphasized concerning 
the mind and the judgment is not to be 
understood as limiting divine guidance 
to* the reasoning faculties. Some have 
little or no reasoning power, yet such is 
the nature of the Spirit's leadings in this 
path that "the wayfaring man, though a 
fool, shall not err therein." With some 
the intuitions seem to furnish more avail- 
able media of guidance than the reason, 
with others the desires, with others the 
conscience, and with others again the 
social instincts and affections, while with 
most of us it may be sometimes one and 
sometimes the other. It does not seem 
to be the mind of the Spirit to so ad- 
minister His guidance as to prefer one 
class of temperaments above another, or 
to condition necessary light upon powers 
150 



The Spirit. 

and advantages only enjoyed by the few, 
but rather to so adapt Himself to the in- 
dividualities and the moods of men as 
that all may hear Him say, "This is the 
way, walk ye in it." 

In conclusion, let us observe that (i) 
Guidance may be mandatory, suggestive, 
prohibitory, preventive or propulsive. 

(2) It may be by telegram, by mail, by 
providential hieroglyphic or by messen- 
ger or herald. 

(3) It will always bear the marks of 
pureness and of harmony with Scrip- 
ture; and, though it may transcend our 
own reason for the time, it will usually 
be analogous to some previous experi- 
ence of leading we have had which has 
been subsequently confirmed by Provi- 
dence. 

(4) It sometimes calls for immediate 
action, but just as often for patient wait- 
ing. 

(5) Cooperation with Divine Guidance 
is evidenced by courage, calmness and 
confidence, but not by haughtiness or 
dogmatism or assumption of omnis- 
cience or infallibility. 

(6) No one can fulfil God's pleasure 
or his own mission on earth without 
habitual Divine Guidance. 

151 



CHAPTER IV. 

delation of tl]e Means of (&xatt to 
©race Itself. 

Two common facts require some at- 
tention to this inquiry. First, the fact of 
the prevailing disuse of some of the most 
important means of grace. Second, the 
fact of the dependence by some upon 
means of grace for what they were never 
designed to substitute or to accomplish. 

Grace and glory (as generally referred 
to in this little volume) are identical, and 
we have tried to show that the glory of 
the Lord is revealed to us by the gospel 
and reproduced in us by the Spirit of 
the Lord, and that this glory has its dis- 
tinctive degrees and its progressive de- 
velopment. We come now to ascertain, 
if we may, the relation of the "means of 
grace" to the revelation, reproduction 
and reflection of this glory in us. And 
that this relation is most intimate is quite 
evident from these facts : 

(i) That all of those who find salva- 
tion (in any of its degrees) find it in the 
152 



The Spirit. 

use of some one or more of those exer- 
cises which we call "means of grace." 

(2) That the great majority of them 
find it in connection (directly or indi- 
rectly) with some public means of grace. 

(3) That the neglect of the means of 
grace is always both a certain cause and 
a sure evidence of decline in grace itself. 

(4) That souls in the stretch for an ad- 
vancing glory in the divine life invari- 
ably find themselves drawn into a more 
ardent and diligent use of all possible 
"means of grace." 

(5) That a genuine revival of religion 
always revives the "means of grace" in 
attendance, interest and power. 

And that all of these observations of 
our own experience are confirmed by the 
history of spirituality in the church, the 
example of primitive Christians and the 
precepts and precedents of the Saviour 
and the apostles. 

Really, upon the other hand, it be- 
comes necessary for us to state that the 
"means of grace" are not grace itself, 
and to call attention to the fact that ac- 
cording to these "means" an undue posi- 
tion and prominence tends to defeat 
grace and to repeat the history of Juda- 
ism and Phariseeism which mistook the 
153 



From Glory To Glory. 

means for the end and relied upon ritual- 
ism and religious observances for re- 
demption. 

That some have fallen into this evil, 
and others are apt to do so, is shown not 
only by the churchism of Romanism, 
and the sacramentarianism of some other 
churches professedly Protestants, but 
also by the growing tendency to ritual- 
ism in many of the churches, the sensi- 
tiveness about order, form and regularity 
in the services of worship, and, perhaps, 
most of all by the complacency with 
which many ease their consciences and 
quiet their desires and convictions with 
the fact of having done their religious 
duty and attended upon the means of 
grace. And what is noteworthy, too, in 
this connection is that, as a rule, these 
persons select their means of grace, usu- 
ally preferring those which are more 
public, more conventional and more 
formal, and neglecting those which are 
most searching, spiritual and gracious. 
In this they are very much like the 
Pharisees, who chose religion on exhi- 
bition rather than religion in the hidden 
place of the heart. The fact is that even 
amongst the acknowledged means of 
grace there are differences. Some of 
them in the very nature of the case are 
154 



The Spirit. 

better calculated to serve the objective 
end of a monument of religion before the 
world than to minister the deep things of 
God to the believing soul, though, of 
course, when properly used they have 
some such blessings. But it is strikingly 
true that multitudes of professing Chris- 
tians adopt these as the major part of 
their religion, and that subjective relig- 
ion (or means and institutions for the 
development of the heart-life of be- 
lievers) is almost lost sight of in the im- 
portance attached to the outward or 
objective. A religion for the world in- 
stead of religion for the soul is the stand- 
ard to which much modern devotion to 
the "means of grace" is committed. 
"These things ought ye to have done, 
and not to have left the others undone." 
Though it will be insisted by those 
who thus misplace the means of grace 
that they are in no wise guilty of repeat- 
ing the blunder of Judaism, that they 
look through these things simply as 
means (even as the Romanist will con- 
tend that he does not worship the virgin 
Mary, but only approaches the Lord 
through her), yet some facts convince us 
that they have become more legalistic in 
this regard than they suppose. A brother 
minister, for instance, rises to warn his 
155 



From Glory To Glory. 

congregation against the "fanaticism" 
being heralded of an instantaneous sanc- 
tification by faith, arguing that such a 
doctrine greatly dishonors the "means of 
grace, for it is by these we are to hope 
for sanctification." Now, were we to 
reply to this, we would say (i) that the 
only "means of grace" which is efficient 
to secure sanctification is faith, and that 
all other means become preventives 
rather than aids, save only as they are 
directed to the furtherance of faith for 
that very end. (2) All who have sought 
holiness by faith agree that this pursuit 
engaged them in the most diligent use 
of every means of grace that was calcu- 
lated to help their faith, and that, since 
they have found this gracious experi- 
ence, it has greatly intensified their use 
of all the means of grace. 

Let it then be strongly emphasized 
that "means of grace" are no substitute 
for grace itself. Neither are they identi- 
cal with the faith which obtains grace, 
but are only helps to that faith. There- 
fore, the true test of a "means of grace" 
is not its conformity with accepted 
usage of public church service nor its 
adherence to any orthodox formula or 
traditional requirement, but rather its 
effectiveness in propagating, preserving 
156 



The Spirit. 

and promoting spiritual life. By this 
assize we fear that many of the occasions 
and occurrences in places dedicated to 
Christian worship will be rejected. 
Others would have to be greatly im- 
proved and radically changed. Strange 
times must have fallen upon us, but it is 
nevertheless true that those who are 
seeking "means of grace" must not at- 
tend everything that goes on in a mod- 
ern church, but must select that which 
may possibly help the soul. 

How wisely Providence has therefore 
ordered it that the most important of the 
means of grace are at our command. 
These are "praying in the Holy Ghost," 
private assimilation of God's Word, judi- 
cious exercise of fasting, personal minis- 
tration to the sick and afflicted, both of 
material and spiritual substan.ce. In a 
word, the private "means of grace" have 
precedence over the public, and as to the 
latter the select and social have advan- 
tages over the set and formal, though of 
all the open institutions of the Church 
none is meant or calculated to be so 
beneficial to us as the preaching of the 
Gospel by men anointed with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven. 

Various activities in Christian work 
are not without their dangers to the 
157 



From Glory To Glory. 

soul. These are hinted at in more than 
one place in the New Testament, and 
they are multiplied in our day of multi- 
form organizations and employments in 
church work. Many of these suggest to 
us Paul's admonition that we take heed 
how and what we build upon the foun- 
dation of Christ and the apostles (that 
is, what all we attempt in the name of 
Christianity), for the budding of "hay 
and wood and stubble" in the place of 
"gold, silver and precious stones," will 
not only cause one to suffer loss, but will 
so imperil his own salvation that it will 
be "as by fire." Three chief perils may 
be mentioned: 

(i) The peril of neglecting personal 
piety for public work. Some are con- 
fessedly and many are manifestly less 
spiritual now than before they were less 
prominent and less active in public work. 

(2) The peril of becoming absorbed in 
lines of work which are not spiritual in 
their nature nor eternal in their endur- 
ance. The material interests of the 
Church, sociological problems of the 
world, conventional and ecclesiastical 
matters of discussion and development, 
and a variety of other things which are 
Christian only in a secondary, proximate 
or remote sense may easily be allowed 
158 



The Spirit. 

to consume the energies without result- 
ing in a single star for one's crown. 

(3) The peril of a subtle form of self- 
righteousness. As the legalist rests upon 
his morality and the ritualist upon his 
ceremonies, so some are betrayed into 
dependence on their Christian works in 
place of the Blood of Christ. That this 
is the case is evidenced (1) by the way 
many ministers divert the attention of 
those who are looking to the blood for 
deeper things in their own salvation, to 
seek relief in greater activities or efforts 
in behalf of others. (2) By the affront 
some manifest when it is suggested that 
they should present themselves as earn- 
est personal seekers of a full salvation, 
for they interpret it as not only dispar- 
aging their attainments, but as discount- 
ing their achievements in Christian 
work. (3) By the doctrinal error which 
has been developed out of these things 
to the effect that the Baptism with the 
Spirit is designed and desirable mainly 
as an enduement for service rather than 
to purify our own hearts and to perfect 
us in love, and, lastly, by the decline and 
dearth of "means of grace" calculated to 
draw the soul inward and to advance its 
own spiritual life from "glory to glory." 
From the error of the mystics and of the 
159 



From Glory To Glory. 

cloister we have swung to exactly the 
opposite extreme — of an absorption in 
the world and in outward things, even to 
the neglect of the "hidden man of the 
heart/' "the deep things of God," in re- 
course for spiritual help to "our own 
company" and to the "entering into our 
closet and shutting the door." 

Hence let us impress upon the soul 
that would advance in the divine life the 
importance of improving the extraordi- 
nary and irregular "means of grace" 
wherewith a good Providence supple- 
ments the usual church life of believers. 
Some of these are arranged for by the 
church authorities, but it is much to be 
regretted that even where, for instance, 
the official camp-meeting is continued, 
it is in few instances the spiritual feast 
which once it was. Where the services 
of an evangelist are considered in con- 
nection with a church the object almost 
always sought is an increase of the 
church membership rather than a deep- 
ening of the spiritual life of believers. 
Most of the conventions and special 
gatherings are either for raising money, 
discussing ways and means, or electing 
officers. There are, however, some hope- 
ful offsets to this drift, and the pente- 
costal meetings sometimes planned for at 
160 



The Spirit. 

annual conferences, at Young People's 
conventions, are providential auxilaries 
to the work of the Spirit in promoting 
and deepening heartfelt religion. All the 
spiritual should embrace these oppor- 
tunities. 

But Providence seems to be further 
supplementing this by various special 
evangelistic associations, publishing 
houses, etc., entirely devoted to the one 
great work of furthering the Spirit-life 
in and through believers. Using due dis- 
cretion in avoiding some which would 
sail under this standard, but which would 
distract the soul with divers doctrines 
and with combative and censorious atti- 
tudes toward the organized churches, the 
reader should esteem it his privilege and 
his obligation to avail himself of the 
benefits of these unusual "means of 
grace." To do so he may sometimes 
incur the criticism or the ill-will of those 
who are unjustly prejudiced against 
them. He may encounter temptations 
directly from Satan or through some 
agency to the effect that he is neglectful 
or disloyal toward the established insti- 
tutions of his church. He may in some 
instances have to take a stand against 
unprofitable things which ask his time, 
strength or means in the name of his 
161 



From Glory To Glory. 

church in order to redeem for himself 
opportunities for that which is gracious. 
But for the most part he can, by due 
self-denial and holy determination with 
trustful prayer, secure such helps to him- 
self and his loved one without serious 
rupture from his brethren. And let him 
not be content with this either! Let him 
not rest until he has by every possible 
means spiritualized the "means of grace" 
which are regularly employed in his 
church, or until he has brought these 
extraordinary means within reach of his 
brethren. 



162 



PART IV. 

arte (fclortous Appearing. 



163 



CHAPTER I. 
©ur $ope of ©lorg. 

All we have said has had reference to 
the glory of the present life. We have 
tried to show that even now it is ordained 
that "the King's daughter should be all- 
glorious within/' and that we are, even 
here, "to be to the praise of the glory of 
His grace." And we have endeavored to 
point out that the source of all this glory 
in man is the Blood of Christ, its power 
the Spirit of the Lord, its means the 
"glass" of the Gospel, and its condition 
the "beholding" of Faith. We have 
found that there is an order of clearly- 
marked steps or degrees in the soul's 
progress in glory even after it has been 
translated from the realm of darkness 
and sin and shame and self to the bright- 
ness and righteousness and glory of 
Christ by those two great cardinal bless- 
ings referred to as the Birth of the Spirit 
and the Baptism with the Spirit, and that 
we are promoted in the steps "from glory 
to glory" by the same law of revelation, 
165 



From Glory To Glory. 

faith and Holy Spirit operation which 
brought us thus into glory. 

We come now to remember our 
Lord's petition for us concerning a glory 
which is yet reserved for us, "Father I 
will that they also whom Thou hast 
given Me be with Me where I am that 
they may behold My glory" (John xvii : 
24). And these words were spoken right 
after a reference to the believer's glory 
in this present life, as He said: "The 
glory which Thou hast given Me I have 
given them" (v. 22). So that we have 
the Lord's own precedent for dividing 
glory into two hemispheres, the glory 
which is given us, and the glory which 
we are yet to behold. And two expres- 
sions in that petition just quoted give us 
the key to this whole matter of the com- 
ing glory : "That they . . . be with Me" 
and that "they may behold My glory." 
The presence and the vision of our glori- 
fied Lord embrace the glory of saints for 
all the ages to come. 

And we can trace the analogy between 
that glory and this in at least a few of its 
outlines. Both center in beholding the 
glory of the Lord "though now we see 
through a glass darkly but then face to 
face." Both result in our own transfor- 
mation. "We shall be like Him, for we 
166 



The Glorious Appearing. 

shall see Him as He is." This physical 
transformation into the likeness of His 
glorious body shall seal and crown the 
moral likeness which here we bear: for 
"having had this hope within us, we have 
purified ourselves even as He is pure." 
And both require a supernatural inter- 
vention for our deliverance (hence both 
are called Redemption); for as we have 
been delivered from sin and spiritual 
darkness by the power of the Spirit, so, 
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
we shall all be changed. Glory! 

There are several things of which the 
glory of grace is but the profile of the 
glory which awaits us at the coming of 
our Lord, and so we may give our atten- 
tion here in closing to a few of the lead- 
ing features of the Christian's hope of 
glory: 

And first, we have hope of a striking 
contrast between ourselves and others 
with respect to that day. We are expect- 
ing it. To them it will come as a dread 
surprise. Neglect of revelation, blind- 
ness of heart, skepticism concerning His 
appearing growing out of its seeming 
delay, sensuality, materialism and ration- 
alism, have so indisposed and disquali- 
fied them for the intervention of the 
supernatural that they are overtaken as 
167 



From Glory To Glory. 

by "a thief in the night." But we are 
the children of the light. Our hearts are 
confidently expecting and fondly antici- 
pating the coming of our Lord. While 
the day or the hour we know not, yet of 
the fact we are sure. The fulfilment of 
His promises of grace has confirmed our 
faith and hope concerning His promises 
of glory. To us it is so real as often to 
seem quite imminent. The lens of our 
telescope has been so cleansed and its 
focus so adjusted that this glorious ob- 
ject of His appearing is brought right 
into our present life and being. Our sur- 
prise will be in the excess of glory over 
all we had anticipated. 

And this contrast between us and 
them applied not only to the fact, but 
also to the nature and effects of the rev- 
elation of the Lord. To them it will be 
a revelation of the righteousness and of 
the wrath of God. But to us His right- 
eousness has already been revealed, and, 
further, "God has not appointed us unto 
wrath, but to obtain salvation by our 
Lord Jesus Christ. " There is a great 
difference between the revelation of 
God's righteousness to us here by the 
Gospel and that to be made to them by 
His coming. Righteousness is revealed 
now for our acceptance and for our 
368 



The Glorious Appearing. 

transmutation into the same image of 
righteousness, but there is no hint made 
anywhere that the revelation of God's 
righteousness at that day is for any such 
end. On the other hand, all the injunc- 
tions, admonitions and consolations of 
the Gospel with respect thereto are "that 
we may be found in Him, . . . having 
the righteousness which is of Christ." 
Those without oil in their vessels then 
found the great need of it, but found no 
time to get it. No, the manifestation of 
God's righteousness at that day is a vin- 
dication of the divine government and 
character before all the nations. It will 
convince all the ungodly of all their un- 
godly deeds and words, and will clear 
the divine government in judging the 
unrighteous. This shining forth from 
His righteous throne will reveal the 
hearts and the lives of men to the praise 
of them that do well, and the punish- 
ment of evil-workers will commend itself 
to all by this revelation of everlasting 
righteousness; so that the Christian does 
not hope in that day for either his justi- 
fication or his sanctification, but rather 
for the manifestation of the same. For, 
mark you, it is as well a revelation of 
saints as it is a revelation of the Lord. 
Like His our life is now hidden (and so 
169 



From Glory To Glory. 

often misjudged and mistreated), "but 
when Christ, who is our life, shall appear 
then shall we also appear with Him in 
glory." This is not to be regarded as 
some spectacular dress-parade, but as a 
revelation of the hidden life of our Lord, 
and of the hidden life of His people as 
well. 

Hence, secondly, we look for the 
glory of the manifestation of His king- 
dom rather than for the setting up that 
kingdom. It may be difficult to make 
this thought clear to some, but it be- 
comes clearer and clearer as we read the 
Scriptures closely upon this subject. 
Three things are there plainly brought 
out: (i) That already "all power is 
given unto Him in heaven and in earth," 
"that He is now highly exalted at the 
right hand of the Father, far above all 
principality and power." "God . . . 
hath put all things under His feet." (2) 
"But now we see not yet all things put 
under Him." This universal reign of 
Christ upon His mediatorial throne is 
matter of faith rather than of sight even 
to His own devout followers, and the 
world does not recognize it at all. (3) 
Christ's coming shall not only bring to 
light the hidden things of darkness with 
respect to men's motives and conduct, 
170 



The Glorious Appearing. 

but it will reveal or manifest His own 
kingdom, so that the recognition of it 
will be as universal as its power. A rev- 
elation this which, while it will bring dis- 
may and destruction to His enemies, will 
be the joy and glory of His own. 

Third, we are to obtain salvation at 
His appearing in still more glorious 
measure than we have found it here. 
And that in three great particulars: (i) 
In deliverance (for deliverance and sal- 
vation are often synonomous) from the 
presence and power of the wicked one 
and his allies. That is in redemption 
from the world. Wise and holy reasons 
dictated our Lord's request to the Father 
that "He should not take us out of the 
world." And one-half of His design 
herein is, doubtless, to demonstrate the 
power of His throne to "keep us from 
the evil" without taking us out of the 
world. Yet, all the while through 
mouths and pens of holy apostles and by 
His own Holy Spirit He has been assur- 
ing us of a day of deliverance drawing 
nigh. That "now is our salvation nearer 
than when we believed." That He 
would send forth His angels and remove 
from His kingdom all that do wickedly 
and all who offend. Thus will end our 
probation — that is, our trial. So James, 
171 



From Glory To Glory. 

writing of those who are oppressed with 
various persecutions and mistreatments 
at the hands of the wicked, exhorts 
them thus: "Be patient, therefore, 
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. 
. . ." And again, "Be ye also patient; 
stablish your hearts, for the coming of 
the Lord draweth nigh." Thus plainly 
showing that deliverance from trouble is 
a lawful feature of the hope of that glory 
which awaits us. 

(2) We are authorized to wait for "the 
redemption of our body" (Rom. viii: 23). 
Some, indeed, would seek to insinuate 
this into the present glory. And no 
wonder, hardly in view of the gracious 
help often vouchsafed to the physical 
and the instances of bodily healing 
which may fall within the range of the 
Christian's experience. But these things 
at best are but an earnest of the physical 
glory which awaits us. We are com- 
passed about with infirmity, and it is 
wisely so. "We have this treasure in 
earthen vessels that the excellency of the 
power may be of God, and not of us." 
The resurrection is not past already. 
And it is with reference to evident error 
on this point that Paul puts in his dis- 
claimer, when he says, speaking of the 
resurrection: "Not as though I had 
172 



The Glorious Appearing. 

already attained/' But he, nevertheless, 
incites our hope in this regard, saying: 
"We look for the Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile 
body that it may be fashioned like unto 
His glorious body." And John declares 
we shall see Him as He is and we shall 
be like Him. Yes, our "mortal shall put 
on immortality." Death shall be swal- 
lowed up of life. 

(3) Life and righteousness will, then 
be crowned. Having run the race and 
won the prize they will be fixed, estab- 
lished and empowered beyond all con- 
tingency forevermore. 

(4) Holiness (or pure and perfect love) 
will be sealed and satisfied forever in 
manifest and complete union with the 
Lord. 

(5) We have hope, likewise, in that 
Christ will bring with Him the saints of 
all ages, with whom, together with glori- 
fied loved ones, we shall have blessed 
union forever. 

(6) We shall receive reward for work 
done. And this reward will not only in- 
clude increased trust and power in the 
glorious kingdom, but it will also, some- 
how, involve a peculiar and glorious re- 
lationship with those whom we have 
been instrumental in saving. As Paul 

173 



From Glory To Glory. 

says in addressing his converts: "What 
is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? 
Are not even ye in the presence of our 
Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For 
ye are our glory and joy" (I Thess. ii : 
19 and 20). And 

(7) We shall see Him as He is. 

"In rapturous awe on Him I'll gaze, 
Who bought the sight for me, 
And shout and wonder at His grace 
Through all eternity." 

This is the crown of glory. 




174 



BE A SOUL-WINNER 

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